Hello again to Wisconsin! I hope all is continuing to go well in the Twin Ports. I see that the weather is becoming significantly cooler and though the fall colors [are ended] by now, I nonetheless believe that the scenery must be very amazing and beautiful.

The weather in Morocco has cooled a bit more, as the temperatures are now only in the upper 70s to low 80s with lows being in the 50s. I have greatly enjoyed the decrease in temperatures and especially the very cool nights. My host mother continually tells me that it is too cold at night and I will surely become sick from it and I need to have more blankets to stay warm. Although, now that my Arabic has become far better I am able to explain to my family that Minnesota is by far colder than Morocco and I am quite used to colder weather by now.

I wish now to share quite an amazing experience I had the first weekend I spent in Morocco. On the second day I spent with my host family, my host mom told me that they were going to a wedding and that I was invited. To be honest,  I was incredibly worried and nervous about going, since I had just arrived in the country and my Arabic was still very rusty and nowhere near to par. However, I soon discovered that I made the correct decision in choosing to go to a Moroccan Wedding.

The wedding took place in a town called Itzer, which is about three hours away from Fes. Itzer is in a part of the country that is heavily populated by the Berber (or Amazigh) people, who were the original inhabitants of the Morocco prior to the Arab conquests in 800-900 AD. They were originally heavily nomadic, though now many have settled down in towns for economic reasons. My host mother and her family are Berber and therefore she likes to tell me that I am Berber as well!

To begin with, the transportation was very interesting. Many people in the country do not own cars. The trains and buses mostly go between the main cities, so the only way to travel from one town to another is through the grand taxi system. The grand taxi system essentially involves going to the station and waiting until a full car load of people are ready to head to a specific town and then they pay and take off. A full car load usually means seven to nine people in a six-person vehicle, and as such you can end up waiting awhile until the driver obtains the number he wants. Originally I thought about how incredibly inefficient and bothersome the system is, but then I realized that if I didn’t have a car and couldn’t count on borrowing my parents’ vehicle, there’d be no way to get from Hutchinson to Glencoe or even to the Twin Cities unless I hitchhike or something.

We left on Saturday afternoon, and from what I was could ascertain from my rusty Arabic, the wedding wasn’t to take place until Sunday. So we arrived in Itzer and met my extended host family, and it seemed I was staying the house of my host uncle and his family, with his daughter being the bride. Nothing too spectacular happened other than struggling to communicate with my new family. Only a couple knew basic English, though many knew French; but since I do not know French, it wasn’t helpful.

Sunday, I woke up around 11 a.m.., which I thought must be late in terms of getting ready for the wedding. But everyone was lounging around in their pajamas still and continued to do so through breakfast at noon and lunch at 3 p.m.! Of course, since most US weddings begin between 2 and 4 p.m.,  I was rather curious to see when something would happen. Around 5 p.m., I saw people finally begin to stir and put on street clothes, and it was around this time that one of my host cousins who spoke fairly good English invited me to go with the bride’s family to the groom’s house, and of course I accepted.

Around 6 p.m., about 20 or 30 people piled into the back of a pick-up and we rode across town to the groom’s house, where there was a massive celebration taking place. It was our job, as members of the bride’s family, to pick up the presents the groom’s family gives to the couple and bring them back to our house (where the party takes place). We did this, by placing the presents onto several carts pulled by donkeys from which we danced and sang in a large procession through the town, with a great amount of drums and horns, for about an hour.

Between 7:30 p.m. and midnight, virtually nothing happened other than that the family members of the groom began trickling into the household; couches, carpets and chairs were set up on the roof along with the band (where the party took place),  and the bride’s family began preparing their outfits. Around midnight, supper was finally served, with the men served first and then the women, from oldest to youngest. I am unsure if one family was served before the other, as I was with my host mom and her siblings during much of the waiting period.

After supper, the band began to play and the general ‘reception’ began, during which many of the young men and women began dancing. Around 1:30 a.m., the bride and groom entered, surrounded by men in green cloaks who acted as shields. After a procession the bride was placed into a throne, and the men in cloaks picked her up and did a little dance. After being set down, the couple was then placed on stage and any family member could go up and take pictures with the new couple. About an hour later, the couple left and more dancing and partying continued for another hour. Around 3:30 a.m., the bride and groom returned. They were dressed in new outfits, and once again went up on stage, where more formal wedding pictures were taken. A short while later the couple departed and I didn’t see them again.

Now, I am sure many of you are thinking, as I was, where the religious part of the wedding was. With the help of my host cousin, I was able to figure out that the religious contract and taking of vows takes place at some point prior to the wedding. Unfortunately, I am not sure if it is normally the couple together or separately, or if it simply depends upon the couple and family, since there are some in Islam who believe that until marriage men and women need to be completely separated. However, because of the number of young women dancing with young men at the reception, and with most of the women not having their heads covered in any way, I speculate that the couple was at the mosque together. The reason for the two entrances at the reception is because the first entrance is for when they are still apart and not joined. When they enter the second time, they are formally a couple and married. Sort of like at the church service, the bride and groom go up to the alter separately, but then at the wedding reception they are often times ‘formally’ introduced and Mr. and Mrs. etc.

I am uncertain how much longer the party continued, but I know that when I left at 6 a.m. with my family, it was still taking place; likely the only reason we left at 6 a.m.was  because I had my first day of class that morning. Despite being a bit tired for the first day of classes, I was very happy I had the opportunity to have this experience. I am eternally grateful to my family for allowing me this opportunity.

I hope everyone enjoys this article and if you have any questions, feel free to email me with questions or comments to lcampa@uwsuper.edu.