Mr. Golden is one of my colleagues at CAM. He teaches third grade. On December 4th he got married and had the spectacular "golden wedding." Golden because of many reasons his first name is Golden, his suit was gold, his bride's dress was gold, and the teachers at CAM even got together to give him the "golden" tree. The weddings here typically last two days. We were fortunate enough to make it for the reception (and the delicious food).
One common Mozambican tradition is for the bride to look as sad as possible. I have heard this is because she is to be mourning the fact that she is leaving her family. I find this something almost foreign to me, since American culture is very emotional and excited during a wedding! Also when the bride and groom arrive they have to do a sort of dance together.
After the meal, everyone is to present their gifts to the bride and groom. The twist is that every person, or group of people, must do a song and dance as the gift is brought forward. Being a table of foreigners, mostly American mixed with Zimbabwean, Swazi, Indian, Dutch and Russian, we had a difficult time trying to come up with a song and dance to go along with it. So we improvised with a song in Shangaan that about half of us knew.
Who said money doesn't grow on trees?
1 comment:
wow! the bride acts sad. I am always amazed at cultural differences. thanks for sharing.
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