Bottom Lines

These days, I get invited to Christian weddings either as a sponsor or as a witness. I missed the days when I get invited as part of the groom’s entourage or as godfather during baptismals.  Those days are gone.  Times had changed. I wonder what could be the reasons.  Maybe it was because of globalization? Or could it be due to global warming or the pandemic ? Or, just maybe, somebody changed the rules and stretched the age gap between the prospective couples and sponsors to be twenty years..

Whatever, this wedding I attended was out of the ordinary. This was a “mixed wedding”.  Uh…, a  wedding by mixed parties.  Or an inter-marriage or mixed-up wedding, perhaps.  Well, actually, it’s a wedding between a Christian bride and a Muslim groom by Muslim rites.

I am not privy to Muslim weddings as they constitute only around 10% of our national population.  Although considered as a minority population hereof, it certainly is not the least among the minorities.  With the kind indulgence of my Muslim friends and respected citizens embracing Islam,  I had to be cautious here lest this piece unknowingly deal on sensitive religious issues. My apologies, perhaps, is in order.  I meant no offense and these were mainly impressions coming from a first-time observer of a Muslim wedding.

Now, for the wedding story, it started not with a bridal march but with some sort of arrangement or conference with the family of the groom and father of the bride or his representative, before the officiating Muslim priest (Imam, I think), in which everything said were publicly heard through a microphone.  With the Imam facilitating in Arabic language, consent by the contracting parties were obtained.   It was announced though, that the father is presently abroad and hence, cannot attend the wedding.  The replacement is the elder brother of the bride. But since the elder brother is not a Muslim, somebody should fill-in the slot.   To cut it short, the bride was finally represented by an elder distant relative who is of known probity, a leader and of good moral standing as a Muslim.  So, after consent was obtained , other requirements were readily agreed upon with no objection being heard thereof.

After some symbolic hand-holding  and foot-shoving by the bride’s paternal representative and the groom,     the Imam then announced in Arabic (usually followed with a translation in the local dialect)   the wedding ceremony was over and the bride was summoned (who was just outside the wedding hall, anyway) to join the ceremony. No exchange of “I Do’s” as we used to hear in Christian weddings.

Then  followed  the wedding march.  It amused me because I  expected an entirely Muslim march but lo and behold,  there go the flower girls, the ring bearer  and followed by the bridal entourage, with their respective partners all in gowns and traditional wedding wear for the groom’s men…

Soon, the newlyweds marched their way to the center table for the picture-taking, well-wishing,  gift-giving and the awaited wedding feast.

As you will notice, the bride’s gown doesn’t look like a traditional Muslim gown at all.  But does it matter? Its a mixed wedding anyways and we’ve got to evolve somehow from our traditional wedding rites…

Bottom line is, the wedding ceremony served its purpose – the divine union of two consenting hearts.  The slight modification hardly had any effect in the establishment of the new family and the beginning of new alliances…Hence, all is well that ends well…

My lasting impression?  Well, the food was good…