Wedding Madness

In our part of the world, summer is wedding season. Though, this may be true in America, in the Arab world they take it to a whole new level. Weddings are held almost exclusively in the summer. Just about every night, we hear incessantly honking horns and fireworks from various wedding parties.

At the beginning of the summer, we had the privilege of going to a modern wedding here in the city, with our language teacher. Her family is very non-conservative, which meant men and women were together at the party. We were able to experience the traditional 'kidnapping' of the bride, during which the groom and his family whisk the bride away from her father's house. The whole entourage then began a a crazy race from the house to the wedding hall (though Mr. Toad's wild ride seemed to pass several land marks more than once). We spent the rest of night dancing to Arab music and dodging the sparks from indoor fireworks.

More recently, we attended a very traditional wedding with our friends in the village. The entire event took place over three days. The first couple days consisted of parties hosted by the bride and groom's families. To accommodate the large number of guests, the groom's family pitched two massive Bedouin style tents in an open field. As the guests arrive, they segregated by gender to their respective tents (which is actually more comfortable for everyone in our culture).

In the women's tents, the girls were then able to uncover their heads and remove their abiyas (an outer robe that covers from neck to ankle). The women spent the evening dancing, visiting, and drinking tea or coffee from about 5 cups that were shared among 200 people.

The men spent their time dancing, drinking coffee, and shooting off every firearm available. At one point, John saw a man shooting an AK47 into the air. As if this weren't frightening enough, the man was surrounded by a dozen children fighting to collect the empty shells as they flew off his gun. Both parties lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Can you pick out John?

The next day, the wedding event concluded with a giant meal of mansaf served to 600 of the families' closest friends. (Mansaf, the national dish, consists of roasted lamb, served over a bed of rice, smothered in hot yogurt sauce.) When it was time to eat, the trays were brought out all at once to tables set in the middle of the tent. The guests rushed to the tables and stood in groups of four or five, eating the piping hot dish bare handed. One guest wanted to honor the foreigner (John), so he offered him the most coveted parts of the lamb, the heart and the brain.

After eating, everyone washed up and went home. Hallas! (Arabic for over, finished, done!)

As always, the people we met were incredibly kind and welcoming to us. The hospitality of our people is definitely one of the things we love about them.

Here comes the mansaf!