Wedding, Completed
The wedding is officially over. Thursday, my birthday, was more of the same that I wrote about before: traditional songs, drums and revelry. I have to correct myself, however, because I learned that the sheer mass of people was not the two families but instead only the groom’s family. Right at the moment when I was missing my family and friends out came a surprise birthday cake! That was really great.
Friday was the henna party and probably one of my favorite parties of the week. At 5:30 all the men from groom’s family went over to the bride’s home to ask for her hand in marriage. At 6:00 all of the women of the groom’s family gathered at the family home to prepare the henna. The women in the immediate family, maybe about 12 of them, dressed in traditional Palestinian dress and sang and danced traditional songs. The traditional dresses are really long and intricately embroidered with beautiful designs. Each village has their own traditional pattern and it’s really neat to realize that the patterns on their dresses have been used for centuries. A group of internationals were walking by and peering in through the fence so I went outside to explain what was going on. They asked if they could take a picture and I wasn’t sure but they just kind of barged their way in. Of course while I was being really concerned that I would be held responsible for these random people crashing the party in true Palestinian style the groom’s mother walked over to grab the visitors to dance, giving them all party favors and insisting they stay to see the henna made. Midsentence with one of the foreigners—explaining that yes, this was still an Arabic wedding even though they were not wearing the hijab—a sharp pain went through my side. I was stung by a bee! I mean really? It was bleeding and really swollen so they literally dragged me next door to the hospital (convenient) where they checked it out and gave me a shot with a needle longer than my finger. Ouch. I returned just as the women were filing out of the onto a bus—a huge, tourist size bus—that quickly became standing room only and headed over to the bride and her waiting family. The bride was in traditional dress and the women of the groom’s family entered and sang and dance traditional songs welcoming her into the family carrying gifts and the henna they just prepared. The bride was given gifts of gold from the groom’s mother before we headed home so the women could change from their traditional clothes before coming back to the Orient Restaurant for a party about 200 people strong. During the dancing the groom was hoisted up on a table and the best man started to slather his face with shaving cream. I mentioned to my host mom that personally I wouldn’t trust anyone that drunk with a razor but she just laughed and said it was tradition to shave him with his future bride’s shoe. Haha. It was a bit messy, but fun!
The wedding yesterday was great! I didn’t understand much of the service, but it was interesting that the bride and groom walk in together. The real party begins after the ceremony. Everyone piles into cars and parades through the entire town honking their horns. We had a noise maker and were blaring it out of the windows of our car. The train of cars had to be about 20-25 cars long, winding up and down through the hills causing a noisy mess. Families come out onto their porches and shop owners stand at their doors waving and cheering mabruk! The reception itself lasted maybe about 5 hours. At points that was hard because the groom’s father couldn’t come back from America for the wedding because the visas they get aren’t double entry and I witnessed tears from the mother and brothers as they talked to him on the phone. The wedding itself had some great traditions too: At one point all the girls were given candles and we lit up the room dancing with the bride with our candles before we were interrupted by the groom, dressed in traditional dress and kofia, sitting on top of a table was carried through the circle by the men, all wearing red hats. By the time the night was over, I’m pretty confident my Arab dancing skills improved exponentially!
PS. I think it is worth mentioning that all of these parties have been taking place at the house, at points over 50 people, and they have had no water the entire time. 50 people and no water for the toilet to flush? And yet, they party on…
