14 September, 2010

wedding traditions

With each culture there are lots of different traditions, especially when it comes to weddings. Here are a few of the traditions here although even these vary with the different tribes that I work with.

Here you can see the tradition of putting flour on the head of the fathers and mothers of the bride and groom. Various family members sneak up behind them during the day and sprinkle flour on their heads. This father-of-the-bride got a bit more than a sprinkling and I was near enough to him to get a dusting!




















One of the my favorites is when the pastor tells both the bride and groom to look at their intended to make sure they are getting the right one. You see during the wedding the couple is supposed to be very humble and respectful so they rarely smile, let alone look at each other. The pastors always talk about how Jacob received the wrong bride first, so they make each one take a turn and make sure they are marrying the correct person!





















There are also various traditional items that are seen on this special day. As they escort the groom from his home to get his bride and then take her to the church, there is this special basket that goes along with them. Inside is the final gift of cloth for the mother-of-the-bride. Once that gift is received the wedding can go on. This basket then is carried by one of the groom's family members, on her head, throughout the day.


Although I don't have a picture of it, when they are about ready to take the bride from her home to the grooms home toward the end of the day, they have a time of giving advise by family elders. When that is done, the bride's family gives the groom a spear or arrow, a symbol of how he will protect his wife in their new home. She then leaves with a three-legged stool from her family which she will use daily as she cooks over the open fire.

There are so many more that I could tell you about but they are hard to explain until you've seen it.

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