I finally decided to stop being lazy so I could tell you about my most recent adventure --> A Traditional Ugandan Marriage! Well its actually called an Introduction because essentially, the groom must bring his entourage to the bride's home to formally propose to her in front of her family.
If I were to tell you the name of either the bride or the groom, I would be lying to you! All I know is that the groom is a member of my supervisor's church AND here it seems like there is nothing called "invitation only".
Now for all my life, the hand full of weddings I've been to and the many I've seen on TV the bride has always been late and this is usually acceptable. Here the tables turned and this man somehow decided to keep his bride and her family waiting! In fact, even the group of us escorting him were kept waiting. I'm not sure if he was nervous or what, but certainly this didn't seem acceptable at all!
The ceremony lasted for a few hours well and was a real drama exhibit with dancing and singing and all sorts! It was all in Luganda (except the prayer, which was translated to Luganda), so luckily my supervisor's wife sat right beside me to fill me on on all the laughter!
In a nutshell, the aunties of the bride must first walk through the groom's party and pick out the groom. Then he is presented to the girl's father but the girl is not there. He must pay for transport to fetch her. However with every money he spends, different girls show up but they are not the one. Eventually, his bride is presented to him, he presents her with the engagement ring and they race to eat a slice of their cake, drink some fanta soda and finally promise to love each other forever and ever <3
Then, as the grooms entourage, we all exit to the vehicle which carried the groom, where we are handed gifts that should be presented to the family. Items ranging from cooking oil to pineapples and God knows what else... every single one of us brought in 2 baskets or boxes each!
Then we were fed! Chicken cooked in banana leaf with matooke, rice and ground nut sauce. This is the official meal of traditional weddings here. Interestingly, chicken is more expensive than beef so you can imagine getting married is not cheap! Plus like I said, this was only the introduction, the church wedding and reception are still to follow and remember the term "invitation-only" does not exist here!
Apparently some couple thousand people get married here every weekend -- wonder how many more weddings I can pop into?!
If I were to tell you the name of either the bride or the groom, I would be lying to you! All I know is that the groom is a member of my supervisor's church AND here it seems like there is nothing called "invitation only".
Now for all my life, the hand full of weddings I've been to and the many I've seen on TV the bride has always been late and this is usually acceptable. Here the tables turned and this man somehow decided to keep his bride and her family waiting! In fact, even the group of us escorting him were kept waiting. I'm not sure if he was nervous or what, but certainly this didn't seem acceptable at all!
The ceremony lasted for a few hours well and was a real drama exhibit with dancing and singing and all sorts! It was all in Luganda (except the prayer, which was translated to Luganda), so luckily my supervisor's wife sat right beside me to fill me on on all the laughter!
In a nutshell, the aunties of the bride must first walk through the groom's party and pick out the groom. Then he is presented to the girl's father but the girl is not there. He must pay for transport to fetch her. However with every money he spends, different girls show up but they are not the one. Eventually, his bride is presented to him, he presents her with the engagement ring and they race to eat a slice of their cake, drink some fanta soda and finally promise to love each other forever and ever <3
Then, as the grooms entourage, we all exit to the vehicle which carried the groom, where we are handed gifts that should be presented to the family. Items ranging from cooking oil to pineapples and God knows what else... every single one of us brought in 2 baskets or boxes each!
Then we were fed! Chicken cooked in banana leaf with matooke, rice and ground nut sauce. This is the official meal of traditional weddings here. Interestingly, chicken is more expensive than beef so you can imagine getting married is not cheap! Plus like I said, this was only the introduction, the church wedding and reception are still to follow and remember the term "invitation-only" does not exist here!
Apparently some couple thousand people get married here every weekend -- wonder how many more weddings I can pop into?!
You got the real wedding experience! I only caught the night. But is a real thing when you say there is no such thing as "Invitation Only" haha
ReplyDeleteI really like the part about the fanta soda!! How exotic! LOL
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