Arabic Wedding

Today we went to an Arabic wedding. It started off with a sort of reception at the brides house. This was where the ancient Arabic tradition of the drinking of the coffee took place. I was told that in the old days, when the grooms family wanted to take a bride from her family, they would go to the bride's family's house for coffee. The brides family would prepare the coffee, and when they sat down to drink the grooms father would say, "We will not drink this coffee until we have what we came for," what they came for being the bride. When the bride's family agreed, then the grooms father would drink the coffee, and that was the "handshake" that sealed the deal. The reception we went to today started with the bride in a room with all her bridesmaids in a circle around her. A man (the bride's cousin) played the drums, and the bride and some of her close relatives danced in the middle of the circle. They did this for a long long time, and after a while the groom and his family came, and they drank the coffee. Then the grooms parents took the bride to the church, and they had the wedding. The wedding ended with a long line of the brides family standing in one place, while everyone went through and shook all their hands and congratulated them.

The party for the wedding was actually this last Wednesday. They had a lot of tables in a party hall, and everyone sat around eating and drinking, and they had dancing. The dance started out with people standing around the bride clapping to the beat while she danced, then everyone joined in. Later there was all sorts of line dances and stuff, it was a lot of fun.

Other than that the last few days have been good. The Arabic lessons have been paying off. I now know at least enough to go anywhere I want on the bus without much confusion, and I have even had a few conversations with people on the bus or in town who don't speak any English at all.


Reception



Reception



This is the part at the brides house where it is sort of like a bridal shower. The women clap and chant around the bride who is in the middle in white.



More of the chanting and dancing. You can hear the elder women of the family leading the chant, and yes, those are gun shots.



My host brother فادي (Fadi) playing the drumb.



A series of the elder women in the family took turns chanting.




The grooms family beings to arrive, while the women continue to clap and dance in the other room.



This is where the groom's father takes the coffee, you can see him drink it if you look close.



The bride makes her way to the grooms family, who will take her to the church to get married.



The bride and groom enter the church together.