This past weekend was one of the highlights of the fellowship so far as my husband and I were invited to attend a traditional Ugandan wedding. Last semester, Sean and I co-taught a communications skills course with Cleophas, a very friendly and outgoing Ugandan professor. As soon as I met her, she immediately invited me to attend the wedding of her niece. In Uganda, it is quite common for large numbers of people to be invited to extended family weddings. Sean and I were excited about the opportunity and started planning where to stay and what to wear.
Ugandan weddings are long and complex affairs. They usually involve at least two ceremonies on separate days - one is the 'Giving Away' celebration during which the bride's family formally hands her over to the groom's family and the other is the actual wedding ceremony. Although Sean and I were invited to both events, we opted to attend just the Giving Away ceremony because of available time and expense.
Both ceremonies were held on the same weekend in Kampala which is unusual for two reasons. Usually, the two events are spread weeks or months apart and are held in the village, not in a big city like Kampala. Although our invitations said the event started at one in the afternoon, staff at our hostel advised us to arrive much later. When we got to the venue at 2:30 pm, hardly any of the other guests had arrived yet and we ended up waiting around until about 4:30 pm when the party really got started.
The location of the ceremony was beautiful and elaborate. There was an elevated center stage for the bride surrounded by chairs to be filled by her bridal party. Guests were seated under tents in a circular arrangement around the stage. The middle area was used by the MC and by the dance troupe who performed no less than eight entertaining numbers at various points in the service. The day began with drinks and lunch. Instead of being served at our tables, the ushers directed us to a separate area of the park where we stood in the buffet line and then took our heavy plates to dining tents. After everyone had eaten, the event began with processionals of the families, the bridal party and the groomsmen. Several people from each group gave speeches to the bride and to the families.
After everyone was in place, both families presented gifts to each other and gave more speeches. The service was tri-lingual and three MCs spoke in either English, Lugandan or Runyankole which made each part of the ceremony last for quite some time. After the presentation of gifts and lots of picture taking, there was cutting of the cake and final speeches and Bible verses by the bride's family. Throughout all of this, guests were supplied with drinks and later on with tea and cake. Toward the end of the evening, plates of grilled beef and goat meat were passed around along with chapati (thick tortillas) and the snacks disappeared quickly.
The official ceremony ended around 10 pm and we headed home at that point but were informed that the the informal party would continue much later into the night. My favorite part of the day was the fact that not a single person walked down the aisle - everyone danced. This seemed like a particularly appropriate model to live by, especially here in Uganda. Why walk when you can dance? It was a privilege and delight to be able to attend a traditional Ugandan wedding and I hope we're able to go to another one before my fellowship comes to an end.
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