Its an all star triple-wedding weekend
0 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Saturday, September 11 at Saturday, September 11, 2004.
I've been to three weddings this weekend - and it is still only Saturday afternoon. Anything could happen tonight. Seriously though, this weekend spent in Alexandria has been educational - not just about weddings (although I have learnt a lot) but also about egyptian society. Allow me to elaborate.
Wedding Number One was an upper class affair - it was between a former AIESEC member here and her long term fiancee. It was un-friggin-believable. Madness, like I have never seen before. But strictly in the materialistic, extravegant sense of the word. I have seen a shitload of weddings - my work between the ages of 16 and 19 as a kitchenhand at a function centre means that I have seen, by my estimates....heaps....of weddings. Some were for rich, rich people. Featuring $10,000 cakes, individual gift packs for each attendants worth more than my average Christmas haul, and a crazy attention to minute extravegant detail - silk embroidered scarves wrapped around each glass, etc etc. But none of these weddings held a candle to this particular affair.
The most surreal part of the wedding was the videocreens - giant white video projections hung all around the venue (outdoors, as Egyptians have the benefit of not having to worry "but what if it rains?". The video screens were displaying a live, on-the-fly edited broadcast. Of the wedding. One camera team constantly followed the bride and groom, wherever they went there was a camera man and the lighting guy and the mic operator following them like paparazzi. It adds to the superstar effect that Egyptian upper class weddings seem desperate to create - the couple are contantly bathed in the glare of the spotlights, followed by the film crew. Another film cred roamed the crown, focussing in either on the families and older guests, or on the action on the dancefloor. And a thir camera was swooping over the entire crowd on a sort of motorised crane - like what they use when shooting movies - making a constant sort of birds-eye view of the whole event.
A production team sat in one corner area, with about 6 TV screens and video editing equipment, constantly selecting which video feed should be displayed on which screen, producting what will, in the end, be the "video" of the wedding. Which we saw life, all night. If you ever were wondering during the night where the bride was, or wehat the dancefloor was looking like, then a quick look at the video screens sorted things out no problems. Which was necessary, given the crowd of 1000+ people (apparently 1750 were invited, although it didnt feel that big).
Wedding Number Two was not the wedding party, as such, but the formal legal marriage. It was done in a Mosque, and was fairly low key affair, mainly paperwork and a few prayers. The most interesting thins about this ceremony was the complete lack of involvement of the bride and groom. Apart from greeting everyone with excited girly squeals and manly "i'm not nervous" looking handshakes, the guy and girl had absolutely no role in the wedding, and sat in the crowd with the rest of us. This was family business, and in particular, mens business.
The two fathers sat at the front, with a civil official, and a person from the Mosque. They had to do a lot of paperwork, administrative stuff (at one point I saw them taking out their drivers licenses from their wallets and exchanging them to take down the details). Once the papers were signed, there was a quick piece of recitation and repetition (seemed like the equivelant of "I John Smith" - "I John Smith" - "Do hereby swear" - "Do hereby swear" - "To love and cherish" - "To love and cherish"). Then there was a quick prayer (which only the men in the crowd seemed to say out loud, although some of the women were mouthing the words). After this, the women started ululating - something older women tend to do a lot of at weddings. Its impossible to describe in words - but imagine making a kind of "a-le-le-le-le-le-le" noise, from the throat, while flapping the tongue up and down or from side to side. Its weird. I have no idea where it comes from or what it means. But women do it at weddings, a lot.
And that, was it. At this point the bride and groom stood up, seemed happy, shook hands with everyone, and we all went home. This wasnt the main event, after all. They can't live together, or god forbid, shag each other, until after the wedding party, which will be in a few months time. This was really the technicality, but it was interesting to see. Especially how irreleveant the bride and groom were throughout the whole event. They didnt really even need to be there. This was all about cementing a legal partnership between two families, more specifically, it was about a contract between two fathers.
Wedding Number Three was my personal highlight. Partly because we weren't invited, didnt know anybody, but still ended up in the front row being introduced to the families. But more because out of the three weddings, it felt like the most intensely cultural, and genuine, event of them all. It was a "poor people" wedding, although I'd imagine they were more like lower middle class than poor. It was held in a closed off street, a tight narrow alley where dense strings of colored light bulbs were hung in between the opposing apartment buildings to create a beautiful glowing roof over the tightly packed crown. Everyone was sitting on chairs in a dense, dense group, facing the stage which was at the end of the street - a rickety, dodgy looking contraption which I definately didnt have the confidence to stand on.
But others did. By the hundreds, it felt. All the time we were there, masses of people were cramming their way onto the stage, to dance, to oggle the belly dancer, and to greet the bride and groom, who were sat in the position of honour at the back of the stage. All night they sat there, like King and Queen, with people constantly approaching them with hugs, kisses, words of congratulations, and the occasional bit of paper currency. On the stage was also a band - drummers, percussionists, and a keyboarder - who were hammering out arabic style rhythms all night, and a singer/MC, who was brilliant. He was singing this typical style of music that is well known in Egypt, as the kind of music you have at a poor people wedding. Its like the Arab version of hip-hop - spoken word rhyming sentences, usually telling dirty or political stories, done to a backing beat, lots of repetition, lots of emphasis on the delivery of the words. Its absolutely fantastic.
The belly dancer was impressive too - dressed in an impossibly small, tight bra that did little more than cover the nipples, and a tiny little pair of skin tight satin "shorts", which were more like underwear. Shaking herself around like nobodies business, with the MC encouraging her to go faster, shake it more, I could imagine the words he was saying, with the crowd backing him up with mad cheering, clapping, and a rush to the stage by the men who wanted to show their stuff alongside her. It was all a little bit dirty and lewd, in a sort of wonderful, escapist way - the things that happen in these weddings are at such odds with general life in Egypt that I can't help but thinking everyone just enjoys living in a different persona for the night.
So there it was. We only ended up at this weeding out of curiousity - we were walking along the Corniche when we head the drumming and live music. We went to have a peek behind the barricade and the moment the people saw foreign faces, there was no way they we were going to get away without taking the seats front and centre, which were quickly evacuated for us. Sometimes being a foreigner in Egypt can be the ticket to amazing experiences. They were explaining everything to us, in Arabic, so I didnt understand much. But Thea, with her damn Maltese language ability to understand Arabic (don't fuck with the Maltese - they know more than you can possible imagine. They speak every language. They probably are watching you right now...). Anyhow, it was just a truly genuine egyptian moment, made all the more special by the willingness of the people to welcome us into one of their most special events.
So, rich blinging elite, upper class Egypt at the top of its game. Mosquey, mans business traditionalism. And organic, crazy, crowded lower class energy. The three pillars of Egyptian society, expressed in the form of a series of weddings. Can you ask for a better weekend?
Wedding Number One was an upper class affair - it was between a former AIESEC member here and her long term fiancee. It was un-friggin-believable. Madness, like I have never seen before. But strictly in the materialistic, extravegant sense of the word. I have seen a shitload of weddings - my work between the ages of 16 and 19 as a kitchenhand at a function centre means that I have seen, by my estimates....heaps....of weddings. Some were for rich, rich people. Featuring $10,000 cakes, individual gift packs for each attendants worth more than my average Christmas haul, and a crazy attention to minute extravegant detail - silk embroidered scarves wrapped around each glass, etc etc. But none of these weddings held a candle to this particular affair.
The most surreal part of the wedding was the videocreens - giant white video projections hung all around the venue (outdoors, as Egyptians have the benefit of not having to worry "but what if it rains?". The video screens were displaying a live, on-the-fly edited broadcast. Of the wedding. One camera team constantly followed the bride and groom, wherever they went there was a camera man and the lighting guy and the mic operator following them like paparazzi. It adds to the superstar effect that Egyptian upper class weddings seem desperate to create - the couple are contantly bathed in the glare of the spotlights, followed by the film crew. Another film cred roamed the crown, focussing in either on the families and older guests, or on the action on the dancefloor. And a thir camera was swooping over the entire crowd on a sort of motorised crane - like what they use when shooting movies - making a constant sort of birds-eye view of the whole event.
A production team sat in one corner area, with about 6 TV screens and video editing equipment, constantly selecting which video feed should be displayed on which screen, producting what will, in the end, be the "video" of the wedding. Which we saw life, all night. If you ever were wondering during the night where the bride was, or wehat the dancefloor was looking like, then a quick look at the video screens sorted things out no problems. Which was necessary, given the crowd of 1000+ people (apparently 1750 were invited, although it didnt feel that big).
Wedding Number Two was not the wedding party, as such, but the formal legal marriage. It was done in a Mosque, and was fairly low key affair, mainly paperwork and a few prayers. The most interesting thins about this ceremony was the complete lack of involvement of the bride and groom. Apart from greeting everyone with excited girly squeals and manly "i'm not nervous" looking handshakes, the guy and girl had absolutely no role in the wedding, and sat in the crowd with the rest of us. This was family business, and in particular, mens business.
The two fathers sat at the front, with a civil official, and a person from the Mosque. They had to do a lot of paperwork, administrative stuff (at one point I saw them taking out their drivers licenses from their wallets and exchanging them to take down the details). Once the papers were signed, there was a quick piece of recitation and repetition (seemed like the equivelant of "I John Smith" - "I John Smith" - "Do hereby swear" - "Do hereby swear" - "To love and cherish" - "To love and cherish"). Then there was a quick prayer (which only the men in the crowd seemed to say out loud, although some of the women were mouthing the words). After this, the women started ululating - something older women tend to do a lot of at weddings. Its impossible to describe in words - but imagine making a kind of "a-le-le-le-le-le-le" noise, from the throat, while flapping the tongue up and down or from side to side. Its weird. I have no idea where it comes from or what it means. But women do it at weddings, a lot.
And that, was it. At this point the bride and groom stood up, seemed happy, shook hands with everyone, and we all went home. This wasnt the main event, after all. They can't live together, or god forbid, shag each other, until after the wedding party, which will be in a few months time. This was really the technicality, but it was interesting to see. Especially how irreleveant the bride and groom were throughout the whole event. They didnt really even need to be there. This was all about cementing a legal partnership between two families, more specifically, it was about a contract between two fathers.
Wedding Number Three was my personal highlight. Partly because we weren't invited, didnt know anybody, but still ended up in the front row being introduced to the families. But more because out of the three weddings, it felt like the most intensely cultural, and genuine, event of them all. It was a "poor people" wedding, although I'd imagine they were more like lower middle class than poor. It was held in a closed off street, a tight narrow alley where dense strings of colored light bulbs were hung in between the opposing apartment buildings to create a beautiful glowing roof over the tightly packed crown. Everyone was sitting on chairs in a dense, dense group, facing the stage which was at the end of the street - a rickety, dodgy looking contraption which I definately didnt have the confidence to stand on.
But others did. By the hundreds, it felt. All the time we were there, masses of people were cramming their way onto the stage, to dance, to oggle the belly dancer, and to greet the bride and groom, who were sat in the position of honour at the back of the stage. All night they sat there, like King and Queen, with people constantly approaching them with hugs, kisses, words of congratulations, and the occasional bit of paper currency. On the stage was also a band - drummers, percussionists, and a keyboarder - who were hammering out arabic style rhythms all night, and a singer/MC, who was brilliant. He was singing this typical style of music that is well known in Egypt, as the kind of music you have at a poor people wedding. Its like the Arab version of hip-hop - spoken word rhyming sentences, usually telling dirty or political stories, done to a backing beat, lots of repetition, lots of emphasis on the delivery of the words. Its absolutely fantastic.
The belly dancer was impressive too - dressed in an impossibly small, tight bra that did little more than cover the nipples, and a tiny little pair of skin tight satin "shorts", which were more like underwear. Shaking herself around like nobodies business, with the MC encouraging her to go faster, shake it more, I could imagine the words he was saying, with the crowd backing him up with mad cheering, clapping, and a rush to the stage by the men who wanted to show their stuff alongside her. It was all a little bit dirty and lewd, in a sort of wonderful, escapist way - the things that happen in these weddings are at such odds with general life in Egypt that I can't help but thinking everyone just enjoys living in a different persona for the night.
So there it was. We only ended up at this weeding out of curiousity - we were walking along the Corniche when we head the drumming and live music. We went to have a peek behind the barricade and the moment the people saw foreign faces, there was no way they we were going to get away without taking the seats front and centre, which were quickly evacuated for us. Sometimes being a foreigner in Egypt can be the ticket to amazing experiences. They were explaining everything to us, in Arabic, so I didnt understand much. But Thea, with her damn Maltese language ability to understand Arabic (don't fuck with the Maltese - they know more than you can possible imagine. They speak every language. They probably are watching you right now...). Anyhow, it was just a truly genuine egyptian moment, made all the more special by the willingness of the people to welcome us into one of their most special events.
So, rich blinging elite, upper class Egypt at the top of its game. Mosquey, mans business traditionalism. And organic, crazy, crowded lower class energy. The three pillars of Egyptian society, expressed in the form of a series of weddings. Can you ask for a better weekend?
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