Egyptian Village Weddings

 

Enchanting Celebrations: Inside Egyptian Village Weddings

There is no doubt that rural life in Egypt has a special character that differs in many customs from the city, and it has a special taste in terms of their customs and traditions in weddings and good bonding with families. Everyone in the rural village knows each other. When one of the villagers intends to get married, often the parents are the ones who choose the bride for him, so he goes with the people of his house and they ask the girl's hand from her family, and then the people of the bride respond to them after asking about them and taking advice between them, and often the bride does not have an opinion, because she was raised that what her people see is good for her, and then if the response is with approval, her parents have some requests until the marriage is complete.

The Egyptian wedding is a very special historical celebration that has been passed down from generation to generation since the time of the Pharaohs. Although Egypt is exposed to many civilizations, such as Greek, Roman and Islamic, many ancient Egyptian marriage traditions still exist in Egyptian weddings, especially in the village and Upper Egypt.

Ancient-egyptian-music-and-dancing

Once the two families agree, the marriage agreement is drawn up from the value of the dowry, the network, the preparation of the marital dwelling and the date of the joyful engagement party.

Tutankhamun--Ankhesenamun

The Mahr and Shabka

The marriage agreement consists of two parts, the Mahr or dowry and the Shabka (Gift of G), where the groom has to pay the bride a sum of money called "dowry" and to give her a gift of gold called a network and to have within the Shabka, the wedding ring or "dble"

The wedding ring's symbolism traces back to ancient Egyptian culture, where it represented an unbroken circle of marriage. Inside, one ring would bear the husband's name, and the other, the wife's name, signifying their eternal bond.

Engagement

The engagement period gives the couple time to get to know each other. The bride's family holds the engagement party at home or more often in a hotel with wedding decorations of several types of flowers and lights.

Henna Night

In Egypt, tradition says that the bride meets her friends the night before her wedding. They will be celebrating the Middle East version of their bachelorette party – Henna Night. Some Egyptian girls consider this the second most important night of their lives. Some people even prepare for henna night as much as they prepare for the wedding itself. In fact, some Egyptian women regard henna night as a real wedding. To be clear, this is because women have the opportunity to dance freely and in general to be themselves without any men around. This is usually the bride's last night at her parents' house.

Legend has it that the night of henna began in ancient Egypt at the hands of the Egyptian pharaohs. The god Set was jealous of the love of the goddess Isis for her husband the god Osiris. Therefore, Set planned to kill Osiris and cut his body into several pieces and scatter them throughout Egypt. But even when Set's plan came to fruition, Isis's love for Osiris remained strong. She searched and collected every part of her late husband's body from all over the earth. With every body part she collected, her hands became stained red with her husband's blood, and since then, the red hands have been seen as a symbol of the wife's fidelity and true love for her husband. Thus, the tradition of dyeing the palms red with henna began.

Henna Ancient Egypt

While every girl is waiting for her turn to get tattoos with beautiful creations of henna butterflies, eyes, ankle bracelets, and spell-inspired designs, to name a few, there are dances with the bride, singing henna night songs, and lots of ziggurats, the high ziggurats that Arab women release on such festive occasions.

There is a strange tradition of pinching the bride's knee and saying “pinch her knee in order to get married remotely in the same week” / “pinch her knee in order to get married remotely in the same week”. Some also follow the tradition of sprinkling salt on the bride to ward off the “evil eye” cast on her by her unmarried guests.

Wedding ceremony

And finally, the big day that every Egyptian woman has been waiting for since she was young, her wedding day. 

Some brides do their hair, makeup is in the same salon and they wear their clothes there already and the groom takes them in a decorated car for the occasion and then they go to the photography session in the studio or in some places outside the village all this accompanied by friends and family of the bride and groom.

Muslims hold a wedding called “Books of Books” performed by the Ma-azoon at the local mosque or at home. "Dowry" and "backside" are written in the contract during the ceremony. “Backside” is the money a Muslim bride receives in the event of a divorce. Christian couples celebrate their marriage in a church led by a priest with prayer and Bible readings.

Sabahiya 

The next day, it is called Sabahiya and the couple begins to receive visits in the afternoon from friends and family carring a lot of food placed on large trays to the bride's house to celebrate the morning (Sabahiya ) for gifts and congratulations.

Khaled Sawada