© Shutterstock

Origins -

In China, there is an ancient tradition known as mínghūn. This is a ghost marriage (or spirit marriage), where one or both parties are deceased.

© Shutterstock

Origins -

The origins of the tradition are not exactly known. Some sources date it back to 3,000 years ago, while others say it goes back as far as the 17th century BCE.

© Shutterstock

Why these posthumous marriages take place -

The reasons vary, spending on whether it's a man or woman. Having an unwed daughter would be considered shameful for parents.

© Getty Images

Why these posthumous marriages take place -

As for men, it was a matter of carrying on the family lineage. The wife of a deceased man could then adopt a child for this to occur.

© Getty Images

Why these posthumous marriages take place -

Another reason why these weddings would take place was to ensure a younger brother wouldn’t get married before an elder brother.

© Getty Images

Superstitions -

"The basic ideology behind ghost weddings is that the deceased continue their lives in the afterlife," says Huang Jingchun, head of the Chinese department at Shanghai University.

© Getty Images

Superstitions -

"So if someone didn't get married when they lived, they still need to be wedded after their death," Huang Jingchun added.

© Getty Images

Engaged women -

For women who were previously engaged and their fiancé died, they would usually participate in the funeral, become celibate, and move in with their deceased fiancé's family. There are no records indicating that men would do the same.

© Getty Images

The ceremony -

In the case where one party is deceased, he/she will be represented by effigies made of bamboo, paper, or cloth. They would then wear traditional wedding clothing, as if they were real people.

© Getty Images

The ceremony -

In the case of two deceased people, both would be represented by funeral plaques (spirit tablets), and their bodies would then be buried together.

© Getty Images

Religious beliefs -

According to Ping Yao, a history professor at California State University, these marriages are carried out of a "parental duty to a lost child that reflected Confucian values about loyalty to the family."

© Getty Images

Ghost marriages are illegal -

The practice of ghost marriages was first banned in Imperial China, and then banned again by the Chinese Communist government in 1949.

© Getty Images

Illegal practice -

They are, however, still practiced illegally in some parts of rural China, and indeed are commonly accepted by some communities.

© Getty Images

Prayer -

Here is an example of a prayer said in afterlife weddings: "So and so, I hereby inform you: You died at young age and thus did not realize the great principle of marriage. You sleep alone in the dark world and lack the intimacy of man and woman. Just as living people long for companionship, the dead fear loneliness as well. Unexpectedly, so and so's family had a daughter who just passed away like an autumn leaf. We sent a betrothal for you so your souls might meet. We selected this auspicious day for the rite of your union. We also set out an offering next to your shrine tablet, furnished with all kinds of food. Please send your spirit down to the banquet and eat the meal."

© Getty Images

Lack of women -

Finding a suitable ghost bride is particularly hard because there are substantially more men than women in China.

© Getty Images

Lack of women -

And things get even harder for men who live in rural areas, where many women leave to study, work, and start a new life in the city.

© Getty Images

Female cadavers are highly valuable -

In places such as the Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, which primarily lived off coal mining and where women are scarce, female corpses became a sought-after commodity.

© Getty Images

Auction -

So much so that when one young woman dies, many families with deceased sons rush to bid for their corpses.

© Getty Images

Auction -

"Usually when the auction is over and the girl's family promises to deliver her body to the winning parents, the girl is still alive," explains Wang Yong, who works at a Shanxi hospital.

© Getty Images

The rise of the matchmaking black market -

Reportedly, around 30 years ago, a female corpse would cost somewhere around 5,000 yuan (approximately US$742), but the price skyrocketed, leading to grave robberies and murders.

© Shutterstock

Grieving father -

The South China Morning Post reported that in 2009, a grieving father from Shaanxi paid 33,000 yuan (US$4,896) for grave robbers to find a bride for his deceased son who had perished in a car accident.

© Shutterstock

Criminals -

In 2013, four men were arrested for stealing 10 female corpses, which were to be sold on the ghost marriage black market for around US$30,800 total.

© Shutterstock

Grave robbery -

In October 2014, 11 people were arrested in eastern China for digging up female corpses from a village in Shandong province.

© Shutterstock

Fresh is hot -

“Years-old carcasses are not worth a damn, while the ones that have just died, like this one, are valuable,” said a man named Wang, the lead suspect of the crime.

© Shutterstock

Grave digging -

In 2015, the bodies of 14 female corpses were stolen in one village in the Shanxi province of China.

© Shutterstock

Hefty price -

According to research conducted by Shanghai University, the price paid for a female cadaver back then would be around 30,000 to 50,000 yuan (approximately US$4,451 to $7,418). Though it’s estimated that they could go up to 100,000 yuan (US$14,837).

© Getty Images

Murder -

In 2016, a man named Ma Chonghua killed two women and sold their bodies for 40,000 yuan (US$5,934) each for ghost marriages.

© Shutterstock

Do ghost marriages happen elsewhere? -

While most ghost marriages are performed in rural areas of northern and central China, the ritual has been reported among the Chinese community in other countries across Asia, including Singapore and Taiwan.

Sources: (BBC 1 and 2) (The Guardian) (South China Morning Post 1 and 2) (Asian Journal of Criminology) 

See also: Unearthing the macabre history of body snatching

© Shutterstock