Moroccan Wedding
Marriage
Moroccan wedding are unique and full of tradition. The pre-ceremony activities begin approximately one year ahead of the event. The Moroccan tradition is that once the bride is chosen, the groom begins to offer her gifts, such as milk which signifies purity, and sugar which signifies a happy life. If the male’s family is wealthy the gifts could also include, jewels, gold, perfume, handbags, etc.
These are large, noisy and lengthy affairs. Often conducted in the summer months and lasting three to four days. The families of the bride and groom hold separate parties during the first day. Food, drinks, dancing and music are regular features.
On the second day the bride with here family and their guests join the groom family home for the next rest of days of marriage, reception rooms are usually segregated, but among more modern Moroccans, there is considerable crossover, and co-ed dancing may even be permitted.
There are two main rituals of the party, the presentation of the bride, who is carried on a table and is bedecked in fine clothes and no end of personal ornamentation, and the presentation of of the bloodied sheets of the marriage bed to indicate that the bride was indeed a virgin and therefore worth the bride price but this is rare to present this today.
Customs
Vary in different parts of the country and among people of different social, economic and regions backgrounds, so if you have the chance to be invited to a marriage in morocco, you should dress well, men should dress a Jellaba and women should dress fashionably but conservatively ( no short skirts or plunging necklines, long sleeves preferred ), you might ask some other invited guest what an appropriate gift might be – but you can not go wrong by giving some useful household item.
