Yes, once again it's time to join the Youth in celebrating their marriages.
Starting in August every year people finish harvesting and are able to finish paying off the prices for their son's/nephew's brides. Thus we are invited to join in the celebrations.
I am always pleased to travel to these events. Here are a couple pictures of the most recent wedding. As always, every tribe has different traditions, so each wedding is unique.
Because of traditions, a bride is considered to be a bad wife if she smiles during the ceremony. Of course this makes for bad pictures. With a bit of persuading,we were able to get these two, Chales and Kafrina, smiling before the ceremony when they were just with the pastor and no in-laws in sight. You see one is never allowed to look their in-law of the opposite gender in the eye here. In fact even after you've been married 30 years you still have to get on your knees to greet your in-law of the opposite gender. Traditions are traditions and when try to get out of them, you are seen as disrespectful!
Another tradition of this area is that after the ceremony when you are at the home of your spouse's family you 'serve' the older members a traditional party drink. Based on your humility, they will 'accept' you and may even thank you with a coin or two!
1 comment:
was this a Melimeli wedding?
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