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Zulu wedding (SOUTH AFRICA)
Bored of attending common weddings where the bride is in white, the groom in a tuxedo accompanied by a cheesy slow song or one of the classics, we decided to attend a Zulu wedding with half naked women and men, spontaneously celebrating the moment…
Even though South Africa has been a colonial country for many years, the traditional Zulu wedding ceremonies still take place in this country.
The Zulu wedding doesnt have invitations, the ceremony date is spread from ear to ear and thus people attend them this way. Everything starts with girls putting on their traditional attire and the same virgin maidens of the village initiate the dance with the bride amongst them. It is very easy to distinguish the bride because her costume is made of cow bowels to bring her prosperity and happiness in her future life. Just beside the bride, the bridesmaid takes place with a white piece of cloth on her head which is a sign that this marriage has been consented for.
All the other virgins wear different garments, some traditional, and most with what we would call mini skirts. However, the bells tied up to their ankles is very traditional.
After the virgins dance, the married women start dancing with brooms in their hands. These brooms are used to cast away the evil spirits and misfortunes that could endanger this marriage.
The groom enters the ceremony area after the virgins’ dance and him and his fellow friends wear their war garments but what distinguishes the groom from the others is his flamboyant hat.
As a result of our inquiry, we learnt that the groom had given 11 cows as dowry for the bride which showed that the groom’s family was rich because normally 2 or 3 cows was the standard number.
One thing that the Zulu wedding has in common with weddings all over the world, is that money and precious stones are stuck on the bride’s garment . The groom’s relatives present her with gifts which she has the right to refuse if she doesnt like them. In this case, she accepts them all but is mostly content with her watch.
Another common characteristic of a Zulu
wedding with the ones we are used to is alcohol. The Zulus have
a traditional alcoholic drink that………beware when drinking
because our guess it contains 80% alcohol 20% unknown drink. So you
have a very common scene of many drunk or passed out people around.
The Zulu wedding has many functions to it, not only do the bride and
groom get married but the single men have a chance to choose their wives
among the dancing virgins. As a matter of fact, the wedding arena becomes
a platform for romantic flirtation,
What is also very interesting of the Zulu wedding ceremony is that neither the family of the groom or the familiy of the bride come together not even once. That is the traditions, the only time they come together is when the groom stands up and sticks his spear in front of the bride. The spear is considered to be the wedding ring and the bride accepts the ring by dancing all by herself.
The Zulu wedding starts in noon ends up in the evening with the invited ones slowly heading back to their villages. The music eventually slows down to a murmur and we, either from the hectic celebration of the Zulu booze sleepily head back to our hotel………
South Africa Tours
Jump from the highest waterfall in Zululand