A wedding I attended (Essay Sample)

A Wedding I attended and the customs that took place in the Occasion Name of student Institution A Wedding I attended and the customs that took place in the Occasion A celebration especially in a family brings joy and pleasure to the family members. Other people who are not members of the family like friends and relative are expected to attend to the celebration. A wedding celebration is an occasion that everyone who is a family member, friends, and relatives are expected to attend. Weddings are known to bring joy to everyone who attends .Pleasure is shared in the wedding and the occasion is usually marked with pomp and color. Some weddings are carried out in different ways; some use customs while some do not .Some customs of the people who are getting married must be used in order for the weeding to be completed. Without these customs; those who are getting married are believed that they will not live a happy marriage. I got excited when I was invited to attend to my cousin's wedding ceremony which was taking place in Mauritius. It took place three months ago and it is an occasion I will live to remember. A weeding ceremony can be classified as a rite of passage because the partners getting married are moving from a stage or status of being single to married lovers .They are brought together by the wedding and they leave their families and friends and go to live together as one( Evertson, 2005 ). They become husband and wife by swearing to God to be there for each other in good and bad. Change of an individual's status takes place, and this is when a person renounces himself or herself as having his or her own family. Weeding ceremonies can be either traditional or modern. This depends on the customs and religion of those who are getting married. There are weddings that take place for the whole week and there are those that only last a day. This also depends on the people who are hosting the wedding and the amount of resources provided (Mason , 2004).In a wedding ceremony, many things are expected to take place. Those in attendance are expected to be joyous in this momentous occasion. Scenes occur in weeding where a person may stand up to oppose the wedding. It might a secret lover of the person getting married or a family member. Such occurrences may spoil the weeding and prevent it from happening. In some cultures, it is considered as taboo to interfere with a weeding and it is believed to bring bad luck to those who are getting married (Beverly, 1996). My cousin's weeding was a smooth one and there were no scenes to interrupt the wedding. When a wedding is prepared and takes please, there are always fears in the organizers that something bad might happen. These are things like secret lovers coming to disrupt the wedding or the bride or bridegroom failing to show up. I have heard of weddings where the bride or bridegroom fails to appear or elopes with another person. They realize at the last minute that they are not doing what their hearts want and decide to elope the wedding. This is very heart breaking, but this was not expected to happen in my cousin's wedding. Although my cousin was a person of many secret lovers as teenager he did things in an organized manner. He had earlier told me that he told all his secret lovers he was having a wedding and their secret affair had to come to an end. Although he promised me that everything was going to be fine and his weeding will be perfect, I did not hang to his words. It is my personal belief that anything can happen anytime so I usually attend such occasions with a prepared mind. I had attended many marriage ceremonies, but most of them were for friends. In my family there were few a marriage celebrations because most of my married sisters, brothers and cousins had adopted "the come we stay kind of marriage”. There were no celebrations, they literally moved in and started to stay. My cousin had promised to have a pompous wedding and wanted almost all his family, relatives and friends to attend. He was the first person in my family to carry out an official wedding. Preparations for the weeding intimated one month ago, this is because everything had to go as planned; and it was like history in the making. My uncle, aunt and parents spend the whole month doing purchases for the wedding. The whole house was washed in different colors. I came from a family of proud men and women and they always insisted on perfection and a good presentation to the visitors. The doors were repaired and painted again; our house was like a bride. Ornaments of different colors, and design were brought, and this included gold, silver and bronze. These ornaments would be given to the bride as a show of appreciation because my cousin was the bridegroom, so according to our customs this was expected. All the family members and relatives were given new clothes. Invitation cards were made and given to all those who were expected to attend. During the preparation of the weeding everyone was excited in our family. Many decorations were made both in the house and in our compound. Since he was my first hand cousin, I had to take part in every preparation of the wedding. My father and his father were brothers, and this was very important because my participation in the weeding showed a sign of togetherness in the family. My cousin's weeding was both done in a modern and traditional manner. People were first to attend the church where the bride and bridegroom were to be pronounced husband and wife, then later on the next day, the traditional wedding was to take place. This is where the bride and bridegroom are pronounced husband and wife by a village elder. We were families that grew and lived in the town, but my parents stuck to their traditions. They always said that tradition is important because every person must be in a position of tracing where he or she came from. The traditional wedding had a lot of different preparations. There was the preparation of the traditional shrine. This was where the celebrations were to be held. The shrine was decorated with flowers made form paper. The canopy which was above the shrine was fabricated with clothes that were colored. A second canopy that was big was placed in the open ground at the house front. A number of electric lamps which were multicolored were put to decorate the place and make it lively. I come from a Christian family, and since my family is both modern and traditional, the wedding had to be carried both in a modern manner and then a traditional manner. When the day for the weeding came, everyone was expected to attend the weeding which was taking place in the church. When I attended my cousin's church wedding, nothing was new to me because I had occasionally attended Christian weddings. The weeding was held in a Methodist church. The marriage was done in every step of the way of the Methodist methods of marriages. According to the Methodist method of marriage, the marriage and engagements had been made one year earlier, and he bride and bridegroom were expected to both participate. During the time of the engagements, the groom and his bride had exchanged rings symbolizing the tying of a knot. The engagements had been held earlier by both families and the church appearance was a confirmation that the two partners were going to be one thing. On that day of the wedding, the bridegroom was well dressed. My cousin had a Tuxedo which looked very good on him; the bride was brought to the alter by her father. She looked beautiful and her face was covered with a veil and she wore a white gown which brought out a picturesque of her image. According to Christian weddings, it is traditional for the bride to be walked down the aisle by her father. This was a symbol that showed the father was giving her daughter willingly to a man he trusted would take good care of her as he did when she was young. This was also taken as approval of the wedding by the father and also a blessing. After the bridegroom and the bride came before the priest, the rings which had been worn for engagement had been removed and placed on small casket. The vows were said by both the bride and bridegroom, and they put rings on each other's finger. The bride and groom were allowed to kiss and there were cheers of celebration. They walked on a blue carpet out of the church; and into a convoy of vehicles which escorted them home where there the traditional weeding was going to happened the next day. The next day at the shrine which was earlier prepared; the bride and bridegroom were told to stand near the shrine. At the front of the shrine there were two chairs which were beautifully decorated with silk and stain. There were two cushions made of velvet for the couple who were to be wedded traditionally. At around 10 am in the morning there were groups of drummers who were known as "Kompang”, the...