Bitalsudan بت السودان : April 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sudanese Wedding Tradition 1

There are three parts to a Sudanese Muslim wedding:-

•Agged ceremony

•Henna parties

•Wedding day: Al Subhia, Jirtig, and party
Agged ceremony

Elder Advice For Sudanese traditional Ceremony

Bride’s female relatives make perfumes(Dag alariyha)

Sudanese Traditional Perfume(Khomrah)

•Bride’s clothes are made: a red and gold dress and a garmasees

•Bride’s jewelry is gold

•Bride practices dances

Marriage, Family, and Kinship in Sudan

Marriage. Marriages are traditionally arranged by the parents of the couple. This is still the case today, even among wealthier and more educated Sudanese. Matches are often made between cousins, second cousins, or other family members, or if not, at least between members of the same tribe and social class. Parents conduct the negotiations, and it is common for a bride and groom not to have seen each other before the wedding. There is generally a significant age difference between husband and wife. A man must be economically self-sufficient and able to provide for a family before he can marry. He has to be able to furnish an acceptable bride-price of jewelry, clothes, furniture, and among some tribes, cattle. Among the middle class, women usually are married after they finish school, at age nineteen or twenty; in poorer families or in rural areas, the age is younger. Polygyny was a common practice in the past. Divorce, although still considered shameful, is more common today than it once was. Upon dissolution of a marriage, the bride-price is returned to the husband.
(Read more: Culture of Sudan - traditional, history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Sudan.html#ixzz1LXwgMp8g

Henna

A Sudanese woman doesn't regularly wear henna until she gets married. Before the wedding day, the bride's female family members hold a party called a "Henna".

This is when they decorate her hands and feet with henna for the first time, sing, dance and have alot of fun! But, it's an all-girls party- no boys allowed!

How do they use it?

The paste is put into a cone that can be made of a sturdy plastic bag, and then it is used like a pen to draw beautiful drawings on the hands or feet.

It is left to dry, then washed off.

If you are careful, your henna can last for over a month before fading away!

Several days before the wedding, the Bride invites her female relatives and friends to an evening party called El Henna

•Hanana paints designs on the Bride’s hands and feet in henna

Men use Henna too !

You think henna is only for women? Men have it put on their hands and feet for their weddings!
In the groom's "Henna party" right before the wedding, his mother, sisters, and aunts get together, sit him on a decorated bed, and put henna on his feet and the palms of his hands (not drawing).

Meanwhile, all his female relatives are singing and dancing, and his brothers and guy friends all get one hand "hennaed"!
Groom also has a Henna night with his femaily and relatives and male friends
Female relatives paint henna on his hands and feet