Weddings and Circumcisions.

A few days ago my roommate and I can to a realization.  Our host family had gone to two of the most important Moroccan tradition rituals and we were not invited to either.  For Moroccan culture weddings are the most important tradition with circumcisions as a close second.  Now, we are completely understanding that these particular events were relatively small and that is why we were not invited, but we still thought it was impressive that our family has celebrated both in the past month.

Lilia

My host mother's nephew was circumcised the second weekend we were here.  She and my host siblings traveled to Casablanca for the weekend and helped organize the party after the act.  We were not explained much about this activity, except that the circumcision takes place in a hospital following religious practice, and the afternoon and night after were full of food and conversation at the house of the parents.  What I got out of it was a nice almond pastry the next day while I was studying.

Last weekend the whole family went out to Casablanca again for the wedding of a friend of my host mother, (my host mom is from Casa, in case you are noticing a pattern).  From what I gather, the friend is a well known person about town and has a very large family, therefore the wedding was a secret in order to make it private for the parents and only a handful of close friends.  My mother was in charge of planning it all, and planning weddings in this country can take a whole village.  One afternoon she walked me through the whole project and I will try to regurgitate it here.

Said and Siham

First, the bride is presented with three caftans for the days of the wedding.  These were all very expensive and carefully wrapped on the living room sofa.  Then there was a gift of a Chanel bag from my family, and also the traditional dowry from the husband in a satchel.  At the actual wedding service the bride and groom are presented with four items: A carafe of milk with a little perfumed water in it, a bottle of "l'eau d'orangiers" which is the perfumed water, a container of incense, and a container of oiled/perfumed wax which is meant to be chewed like gum.  All of these things are incredibly expensive traditional gifts, each representing some aspect of prosperity in marriage.  These items were each in decorative glass containers which were then placed inside a large tray of sorts which is topped with a decorated cone.  These are found all over in the market and are carried out by a couple of men during the ceremony.

My favorite part was seeing my family dressed up.  I don't have a picture of my brother because I didn't actually see him before he left.  Aren't they shmancy?!