Saturday, July 5, 2008

Bride price-PNG traditional wedding

On Thursday, we heard of a friend's brother paying his bride price and getting his bride that day, so we decided to go and take part. Brittany had no idea what she was getting into. We were told we would leave at 12, and headed out a little before one.
 
We met the groom's side of the family. The groom showed up about 3pm.
 We admired the food that the groom was giving to the bride's side. They also gave 20,000 kina and 30 pigs- a very high bride price.
 We saw the bride getting ready and took pictures of her. She was wearing traditional dress. Kus kus fur on her chest and a head dress that had been passed down for generations. The bride had not eaten all day and there was a dramatic fainting incident, but the ceremony kept going.
  This is the groom's side singing, dancing and waving umbrellas. They were singing a tokples song saying, "hurry up, let's get this wedding going, we have things to do, just give us the girl". Finally at 6 pm, the waitskin's left before the food was divided out, and before the party was over, but it was a fun day and a great chance to learn more about culture.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gail, I just found these last posts from July 5th. So sad that the pictures from the wedding and the pidgin lessons did not open on my computer. I did see your quilt pictures. So glad you can have these hobbies/interests. Appreciate the updates.

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