[2] Despite its long history and unique practices, the original purposes of ghost marriages remain largely unknown.
For women in traditional Chinese culture, ghost marriages are often performed as it is considered shameful to be parents of an unwed daughter, with unmarried girls often being shunned from society.
[5] In other occasions, the family may choose to leave out a red envelope with gifts, believing that the deceased person's spouse would eventually reveal themselves.
[7] The opposite rituals involving the ghost marriage of a man with a deceased female fiancé however, remains rather unknown due to a lack of records regarding the matter.
[5] Ghost marriages are relatively similar to weddings and funerals,[5] whereby the participants' families will often exchange gifts such as cakes, clothes, and money, in varying sizes.
[9] Chinese ghost marriages are typically arranged by the family members of the deceased and are performed for a number of reasons, such as to marry an engaged couple after one or both party(s) death,[10]: 29 to integrate an unmarried daughter into a patrilineage,[1]: 82 to ensure the continuation of the family line,[10]: 29 or to wed unmarried, deceased older brothers before their younger brothers.
[10]: 29 In many Chinese households, an altar is often prominently displayed with the spirit tablets of paternal ancestors and images of gods.
[11] Should a woman of an eligible age pass away unmarried, her family would be prohibited from placing her tablet on the altar of her natal home.
[12]: 127 Many Chinese parents therefore assume the important duty of marrying their children off,[13]: 254 especially their daughters who are only able to acquire membership in descent lines through marriage.
[14]: 148 Also for these reasons, ghost marriages are seen as a solution in ensuring that unmarried, deceased daughters could still be connected to a male descent line[1]: 82 and be appropriately cared for after death.
Charlotte Ikels reports that, "Traditionally, girls who did not marry were regarded as a threat to the entire family and were not allowed to continue living at home.
"[15] The ceremony itself has the characteristics of both a marriage and a funeral, with the spirit of the deceased bride being "led" by a medium or priest, while her body is transferred from her grave to be laid next to her husband.
As daughter-in-laws married through ghost marriages are expected to live a chaste life, their purpose is to become a "social instrument" that would enable the husband's family to adopt.
[1]: 100 Such families would often prefer to adopt patrilineally related male kins,[1]: 95 usually through a brother who would assign one of his own sons to the lineage of the deceased.
[16] Following this, the adopted son would be expected to make ancestral offerings on his birth and death dates, and is additionally "entitled to inherit his foster father's share of the family estate.
"[18]: 29 In the early days of immigration, ghost marriages were said to have been used to "cement a bond of friendship between two families"; no recent cases of such have been reported.
[1]: 98 While there are no standards in the amount exchanged, several of Janice Stockard's informants have reported instances whereby the groom's family had provided the bride with a house.
[17]: 147 For instance, to represent the ghost couple at their marriage feast, the bride and groom may be constructed of paper bodies over a bamboo frame with a papier-mâché head.
[18]: 71 In a separate ceremony that married a living groom to a ghost bride, her effigy had been constructed with a wooden backbone, arms made from newspaper, and a head of "a smiling young girl clipped from a wall calendar.