I'll be catching up on some of my travels over the past few months, which were overrun, pretty
much, with traveling, lack of internet, & visitors.
Right now, though, I'll just mention my friend Sirine & her wedding.
Sirine first signed her wedding contract in March, during her "fiançailles," or engagement party, at her home in the north of Tunisia, along the coast. During this party, a notary from the municipal government came to the house to witness the signing of the contract, which explains things like finances, rights in case of divorce, etc. Sirine wore a beautiful dress for this event, made by hand by a woman who lives in the suburbs just outside of Tunis.
(sirine's luteea)
A few days ago, Sirine celebrated her "luteeaa," which is like her bachelorette party, without the racy side. All of her friends and family gathered in a large hall in Bizerte, Tunis
ia, and danced, admired Sirine & her groom (who were sitting atop a dais), and ate salty fingerfoods & sweet pastries.
The "luteeaa" is traditionally a female-only party, but plenty of women have
mixed parties (especially in larger cities, it seems), or at least invite their male relatives to enter at the end of the evening, to have a dance with the bride.
When I was in the south of Tunisia, in Zarzis, I witnessed a "luteeaa" during which the bride danced, sometimes all alone and sometimes with a few female family members (& once in a while a male relative), in front of a large group of women - neighbors, relatives, friends - sitting in plastic chairs, facing her.
(picture of young bride in Zarzi
s dancing during her luteeaa)
What is really different about a wedding ceremony in Tunisia is just this - that the lights are bright, the bride and groom sit on a dais in said bright lights (seeming to me like a constant photo shoot, which they bear with much poise, managing to look consistently gorgeous), and the music is mind-numbingly loud, making it as difficult to speak as if one was
in a night club (from my experience at as many weddings as I can count on one hand). The music is also, in my experience, always Arabic music - despite the fact that Tunisians are polyglots and the most popular station in Tunis - judging from taxicabs - plays American hip-hop, oldies, French pop & oldies, Arabic music from the Middle East and North Africa, & even house, dance, and electronica on the weekends. Otherwise sitting at tables decorated much like ours, wedding guests approach the deis to take a picture with the bride & groom, who occasionally stand up together & dance, surrounded by a group of clapping, swaying onlookers.
The wedding party started around 9 PM and finished at maybe 2 AM or 3 AM. Sirine is off to Malaysia & then Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, for her honeymoon.
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