This has happened a few weeks back. This young man decides to marry his girlfriend. So according to the culture elders have to be sent to her parents for their daughter’s hand in marriage for their son. Though he and his family were from very humble background, hardly make it through a whole week, the elders had with them a couple of bottles of whisky and sheep that cost them five thousand plus birr. (Oh didn’t you hear? That is the price of sheep these days; and for five thousand the sheep they give you is anything but meaty! A few years back even five and six hundred birr raised eyebrows.
Anyway the elders go to the girl’s house at the appointed hour. As they were standing to make their case the unthinkable happened; her father cut them short asking e them to be seated. They thought that it was a failed mission. Her family isn’t patient enough to hear even a single word! The father of the girl made a demand that wasn’t frequently heard.
“I want the young man to come.” demanded the would-be groom be present. What! The young man wasn’t supposed to make his presence felt that day! Maybe her father is thinking of warning the young man in front of everyone to keep away from his only daughter. “The next time I catch you with my little girl I’m going to blow your head off!” The elders though visibly unhappy about the request, they played it cool.
So the phone call goes through to the young man and the hastily dressed young man goes. When he arrived the girl’s father had an announcement.
“We’re in hard times. Things are going to get worse. As you know we survive on very little income. We’ll not be able to throw any wedding party however small. So we have decided for everything to be finalized today. They will marry today.” And they married then and there!
Of course, the elders who tried to stick to how things have been since as far back as they remember weren’t impressed. Impressed is too flabby a word. They were infuriated! In fact later it is said one of them regretted he ever was part of the group. “They forced us to abandon our culture. What will people say when they hear what has been done?”
You know who the happiest fellow was; the young man! For months his n biggest nightmare had been how in the world he was going to fund his e wedding ceremony. There was supposed to n be one: especially since conventional wisdom has it that the parents of the girls usually demand some sort of a ceremony all escape routes were sealed for the young g man. Now the very people who were supposed to be difficult to deal with make his day! Brides, too, so it’s said, would like some sort of ceremony at least for the photo and video shoot! You know, years down the line there will come the time where family and friends ask, “Why don’t you show us the video of your wedding?”
Once the pictures start rolling the comments rain down;
“Look, how beautiful she was!”
“And the wedding dress is so beautiful it makes her look like the Queen of England.”
“Your husband is so handsome…”
But the strange thing these days is more is spent on the photo and video thing than the cost of a modest wedding party. Someone was telling me studio photos which every newlywed couple wants is in the tens of thousands!
Well, the bride-to-be’s father chose the safest way and he deserves all the cheers he could get. He was not only saving his family, he was doing justice to his daughter’s future! The biggest headache for many couples is years of paying the loans they took to throw some lavish wedding party punching way over their weight.
The Ethiopian herald June 13/2021