There are certain tribes in Southern Sudan that believe that a marriage can be happy only if the bride can give birth to two children. If she fails to do so, the groom can divorce her. However, to have an opportunity of divorcing from the side of the bride, she must give birth to twins only. There is also a similar 'baby' tradition in Sudan. There must be two and more children invited to the wedding day. People from Sudan believe that the more children are at the wedding, the happier couple will be.
`The groom is absent, let`s kiss the bride! ` During a wedding ceremony, if a groom leaves the room, all men stand up to kiss the bride and if a bride excuses herself to the bathroom, then all the female guests up to kiss the groom. Even though this wedding tradition is rather strange, it has only kind intentions. The purpose of this tradition is to make bride, groom and guests laugh. Of course, nobody will kiss a bride or a groom like they can do to each other, just a friendly kisses in cheeks!
The tradition of wedding gifting is quite popular in many countries. But the most precious one is the tradition of wooden spoon gifting, which comes originally from Wales. A groom is required to gift his new bride with a carved 'Lovespoon' signifying that he will never let her go hungry. This spoon also means that the groom will take all the responsibility for the family finances. The bride`s duty is to safe this spoon and give it to the eldest child on his/her wedding day. Sometimes people are able to collect a lot of such spoons, which was coming from one generation to another.
After the wedding is done, the relatives lie down on the ground facedown and the couple walk on them as if it were a rug made out of people. The purpose of this tradition is to make newly weds remember, that all they have now is only because of their family from both sides. `A human carpet` has also the meaning of the way to the happiness and eternal love for the newborn family.
Author: Victoria Barska