Sunday, July 10, 2011

Mozambican Weddings.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to a friend's wedding. Weddings here are interesting. They look really fun when you are watching them, but when you aren't involved it is pretty boring.

  Alex made this little video for them

First we arrived at the civil registry office where the 2 were to get married. The ceremony was to begin at 10:15, it finally started around 11:15. So, we all crammed into a small room and they stood in front of a desk where a lady read the proper words, and they exchanged rings, and kissed. And that's it, they were married!

We then went to a garden that is in downtown Maputo. It is really pretty, it has all kinds of greenery, and it over looks the ocean. This is where everyone goes after they are married. (and it is where the church was dedicated in Mozambique). We spent an hour or so at the garden, walking around, taking pictures, and more walking around.

After the garden we went to the beach. We got out of the car, walked on the beach, took pictures, and walked around some more.

Then we went to the Maputo chapel. They had tables and chairs set up in the chapel. They had a small session where people offered advice. 3 or 4 people stood up and gave a few words of advice, we ran out of time because the time was taken up by the first man who offered "advice" he stood in front of all of us for more than 30 minutes teaching us the story of Adam and Eve. I don't know where the marriage advice was in the story.

After the advice, everyone went out side. This is the part that looks like a lot of fun. They have traditional wedding songs that they sing in their dialect (called Machangana) and they dance in celebration. It just looks like a big party. By this time it was about 4:00 pm and they were still singing and dancing, we decided to go home and skip out on the dinner, and whatever other festivities that were to follow.

Mozambican weddings are an all day event.

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