I’ve been meaning to create this post for a few weeks now. Remember the very bizarre poem in the wedding invitation? Well, if not, you can click HERE to read it. Questionable usage of the English language aside, I ended up going to the wedding with a group of friends. I’ve been to traditional weddings before, but I usually go by myself or with mutual white friends, not with a group of Javanese friends. This time I had the benefit of having all the steps and what they symbolize explained to me. I took copious notes. Here is my rough translation of what went down.
(I apologize in advance for poor picture quality. There were a million people crammed in there, so no matter what angle I took a picture from, it seemed that there was ALWAYS someone standing in between me and the shot I wanted. Also, it was dark inside, so some pictures are blurry and/or grainy.)
1. First of all, the wedding was in a HUGE community building. Lots of chairs lined a central aisle, all facing the aisle. At one end of the aisle was a heavily decorated stage stretching across the length of the room. The first thing that happened was that the bride came from somewhere behind the stage and just stood in front of the stage for a few minutes. Then after awhile, the groom came in from the outside – the opposite end of the aisle. They walked towards each other and met in the middle. She threw some kind of liquid at his legs, and then someone handed him an egg, which he smashed with his feet. Then the bride knelt down and cleaned everything off his legs and feet. This symbolizes the submission of the wife.
2. Once he was all cleaned up, a woman came behind them (maybe a relative?) and wrapped a blanket around both of their shoulders and walked them together to the stage at the end of the aisle.
As they did this, all the guests were served their first course – some kind of sweet bread.
3. Once they were settled in at the front, the groom hand fed some rice to his wife to symbolize that he is now her provider. They they both gave the other a drink of tea to show their willingness to serve each other.
At about this point, the wedding singers came out. And oh, let me tell you, if that wedding singer had been 40 years younger, I might not have been able to control myself…
I mean, the metallic yellow jacket practically made me fall in love with him anyways, but the mullet… oh, the mullet… I really regret not getting his number that night. Good thing I had my next course to focus on – soup! And that nasty neopolitan spam looking stuff in the middle was actually REALLY tasty!
4. Next, the bride and groom went to each set of parents to ask their blessing upon them and their marriage. Each set of parents was sitting on the stage as well, so they didn’t have to go too far. Before approaching the parents, they had to remove their shoes as a sign of respect for their elders.
After they finished that, we ate our main course. Yellow rice = party time!!
5. Then everyone got to go get their picture taken with the bride and groom. It took just about forever. Good thing we had ice cream and rose shaped jellies to keep us occupied while we waited our turn!
It was a delicious wedding, but a LONG one. The whole process took about 3 hours. And while I appreciate all the symbolism – right down to each of the bride’s hair ornaments, I really don’t look good in yellow, so no Javanese wedding for me! : )
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