The Wedding is the fairytale every girl dreams about. In your wedding, you must look like a princess, with your glamourous white dress, your make up and hair done, your loved ones gathered around you celebrating the begining of the rest of your life and your prince charming is what makes the story complete.
To some people that's not the case at all. I recieved an email the other day about the funniest and weirdest wedding customs around the world. It's amazing to see how the most demeaning, disgusting and hurtful actions to you, represent joy and happiness to other people!
In India, In a tribe called 'Toda', The bride to be must show loyalty, humiliation and total devotion to her future husband and that is by crawling on her hands and knees until she reaches him kneeling (while people are looking at her), then he puts his foot on her head to give her his blessing! (I'd rather live single forever if you ask me :)
Another tribe that lives South the Pacific Ocean has a weird wedding custom. On the wedding day, the bride and groom go the head of the tribe; who holds their heads and bangs them against eachother as hard as he can. And this makes the marriage official! (OuCH!)
The last tribe that I was shocked by is located in an island in the Pacific Ocean. In this tribe, the groom gives his wife a dowry based on her beauty. The more beautiful you are, the higher dowry you'll recieve. But the trick is that the dowry is 'a huge number of mice'. The prettier you are, the more mice you'll recieve! (Poor Ladies)
These are 3 examples out of many of the weirdest wedding customs that i read about.
At the end I just want to thank god for our beautiful, fun, elegant weddings and thanks to Islam that preserves women their dignity and honor and protects them from being subjected to such humiliation.
oh Fatma you make remember my wedding from almost five years ago that went terribly wrong in almost everything except the groom thank God for that. Anyway what is really matters in the end is the persons themselves as long as the respect and love is the base of their relationship then everything else doesn't matter. In other words whatever the ceremony was or even it wasn't the wedding of your "dreams" this is not the end of the world, I mean what's the honeymoon is for, absolutely to make you forget what happened in the wedding night. ;)
ReplyDeleteFor the wedding costumes you placed above, I thank God that we didn't go that far in humiliation, but I think that these costumes not taken seriously otherwise none of them will get married. my favorite wedding ceremony is the traditional Moroccan wedding that last for seven days of dancing, singing, and Henna nights, its really beautiful ceremony.
After I read what you post, I really thank god that we live in an Islam community. But, in the past there is tradition in Kuwait which my grand mother told me about, when the bride get married they have to carry her with a carpet and she should scream until she arrive to the groom house. And if the bride doesn't scream she is shameless, and they belief even what the girl have to show that she don't want to marry because she is too shy and pure.
ReplyDelete• Hi Fatma I really enjoyed reading your post and that got to do some research on my own to find out about other weird or different wedding ceremonies than the one we are used to in our gulf and arab regions and these are my findings:
ReplyDelete• Jumping the Broom: One of the most common traditions of African Tribal Wedding is 'jumping the broom'. The ritual is said to have originated from the Deep South during the American Civil War when slave weddings were not permitted and so an alternative commitment ceremony had to be found. In this ceremony, the broom is placed on the floor and the couple jumps over it. The gesture is said to symbolize jump from single-hood into matrimony or sweeping away the old and welcoming the new.
Here is a short description of the pre-wedding rituals followed in a typical Muslim Nikah.
• Legan Chir: When the date of marriage is finalized, cash present is sent to the bride's father by the groom's father. The ceremony is known as Legan Chir.
• Day 1 and Day 2 Ceremonies: On days one and two, first the bride's people and then the groom's, go to the other party's house, carrying mehendi paste in a plate. The children carry candles, which are lit before entering the respective houses. Dinner is served and songs teasing both the boy and girl are sung.
• Manjha Ceremony: On the third day, manjha ceremony takes place. The prospective bride is seated on a small square table and anointed with haldi (turmeric) provided by the boy's family. Following this ceremony, a married friend will accompany the bride everywhere and at all times. This friend will also spread the turmeric over the bride's whole body before she bathes. For this ceremony the bride is supposed to wear yellow clothes and no jewelry. There is, again, much celebration and singing.
• Mehndi Ceremony: The Mehndi ceremony is held at the home of the bride on the eve of the wedding ceremony or a couple of days before it. Following the tradition, the female relatives of the bride anoint her with turmeric paste to bring out the glow in her complexion. A relative or a mehndiwali applies mehndi on the hands and feet of the bride. The event has a festive feel to it with the women singing traditional songs. The bride wears sober clothes on the day. According to custom the bride must not step out of the house for the next few days until her marriage. The bride's cousins sometimes apply a dot of mehndi on the palm of the groom.
Hey girls, thank you for reading and commenting on my post ;)
ReplyDeleteEman, I think you were lucky enough to find Mr. Right, but what about those girls who got stuck with the wrong man?! I think that they should at least have a magical wedding to look back to when everything else goes wrong
Farah, This is the first time I hear about the 'screaming' ceremony! Interesting! But I don't think that all Kuwaitis used to do that otherwise we would've heard about it before! I'll ask my grandma and get back to you.
Abeer, thanks for your contribution. Jumping the broom sounds like a ritual a witch would have on her wedding, doesn't it?
but it's interesting to see how different cultures celebrate their weddings. It surely pushes you to keep an open mind to the differences and clashes of cultures you may face in your life.
Hello everyone !
ReplyDeleteThanks fatma that was a really nice topic and as you said Islam doesn't degrade women and woman in Islam is not suppressed , I read about insane marriage rituals around the world and it shocked me how we're different from each other , Gypsies for centuries have had a bizarre tradition , that if you managed to forcefully kidnap a girl and keep her by your side for 2-3 days , she officially becomes your wife .
Finally thank god that we live in Islamic community that gives the woman the right to choose the man she will spend the rest of her life with .
Hey Nagham thanks for stopping by ;)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, even though we do live in an Islamic community, a lot of families in Kuwait disregard that Islam gave women the right to choose whether to marry a guy or not! some of my friends didn't even meet their husbands until the wedding night, imagine that! What if they didn't like eachother? what happens next???
Poor girls
hello every body :)
ReplyDeleteFatma, I really enjoyed your topic, it is very interested. It's really weird weddings.
But I liked the Indian weddings . it has a special ceremony that I find it wonderful .
Now I'm going to show you a video about Indian Marriage ceremony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt2MVkbjJJs
well , I think you're right some people in our community force their daughters to marry someone they don't really like but in the Islamic law it's prohibited you have to give the woman the right to choose the man she will spend the rest of her life with but the problem is that there is ignorance here and there in our society , every society has its postive and negative aspects and that what make us humans ..
ReplyDeleteThanks jojo for the video ;) you know, I've seen a lot of indian weddings but this is the first time I understand the meaning of their wedding rituals!! Interesting :D
ReplyDeleteNagham, I absolutely agree with you.. I think that they choose to be ignorant in this matter because they don't want to change it. I think that they don't even realize its impact on their lives. Anyway I don't think I should critisize the way they chose to live their lives. It's all up to them ;)If they are happy with it, good for them