Bedouin Wedding
Ancient Bedouin Wedding Treasures
The theme of this celebration will be similar to an Ancient Traditional Hebrew/Bedouin Wedding.We would like to share with you a little more about the Ancient Bedouins Traditions and Customs.....
Bedouin weddings celebrations are usually held outdoors, and are an excellent way to experience this unique culture. The weddings can last from 2 - 5 days with most of the celebrating happening during the night time. Much of the celebrating is done in the family homes. But big weddings held once or twice a year are often held in a big valley in the desert. One of the highlights includes a special night of tribal dancing and lively music. This is an amazing experience, as this is one of the few times of the year that young men and women would mix together, in the hope of finding love. Like weddings elsewhere in the world, a bedouin wedding provides everyone the opportunity to dress up in their best clothes and celebrate with food, music, and dancing.
When big wedding takes place amongst the Bedouins, it is an event that everyone will talk about. Many people from the town are invited and guests and visitors are normally welcome to attend.
Bedouin Hospitality
Bedouin people are excellent hosts and are well known for looking after guests and making them feel welcome. This is part of a tradition that has been passed down generation after generation. Firstly there is the famous bedouin tea, made from tea leaf with sugar, and desert herbs of habuck and marmaraya. This gives it a distinctive flavour.It is customary as soon as a guest arrives to get the tea on the fire, whilst sharing stories and news.
The second part of the hospitality always involves food, Bedouin people will always make sure their guest are well refreshed with tea, water and traditional bedouin food. This includes delicious bedouin bread cooked on an open fire, rice and either a meat, fish or vegetable dish. The cooking is always from fresh produce grown or reared locally. They take much pride in their cooking and food is always seen as a special event.
For weary travelers in the desert the sight of a Bedouin Tent was equal to that of seeing an oasis. The custom is that food, water and a place to sleep should be provided to all travelers and guests if needed for up to three days. After this time the guest would be well and fit enough to continue onwards with their journey in the desert. Whilst modern times and cars, have really changed the need for such hospitality it is still forms a strong part of the bedouin culture and it is still offered if needed.
To accompany all this hospitality the Bedouin are excellent story tellers, many have stories about how things were in the 'old days'. Most have great story's about their relationships with camels, about amazing herbal medicine cures that they use and about general family life. Many Bedouin people are also great poets, and have a real talent. But this is often reserved for special occasions such as weddings.
Traditional Bedouin Culture
The Bedouins were traditionally divided into related tribes. These tribes were organized on several levels. The individual family unit (known as a tent or bayt) Bayt is the deriving from a common semitic root that also gave rise to the letter Bet. Is also a term in modern Hebrew for "home."
It appears in the name, such as:Bayt Lahm, Arabic name of Bethlehem which in Hebrew means "House of Bread".
Bedouin Bridal Veil
There are many examples throughout the Bible concerning the bride price or dowry, the betrothal and its ceremonies. After Abraham's servant had carried out the negotiations for Rebekah, he "brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things." Then the account tells of the betrothal feast in these words: "And they did eat and drink" (Gen, 24:53-54).
When Hamor asked Jacob for his daughter as a bride for his son, Shechem, he said: "Ask me never so much dowry and gift and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife" (Gen. 34:12). That the bride price was paid in other forms than money is borne out in the case of Othniel (Joshua 15:16,17) and David (1 Sam. 17:25; 18: 17-27).
In the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15: 8-10):
15:8 What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find [it]?
15:9 And when she hath found [it], she calleth [her] friends and [her] neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
15:10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
The ten pieces of silver mentioned are most likely part of the bride price that the daughter received.
The Bedouin headdress combines a rectangular scarf of black silk georgette with a diagonally folded band. The thin scarf is draped around the head and under the chin so that the throat is covered. The folded band is tied squarely on the head so that it covers most of the forehead. The Bedouin woman pulls her hair out from under the veil to frame her face. Often the hair has been hennaed. She sews her gold and silver dowry coins on her headdress and likes gold or silver anklets and bracelets. In the Middle East, it is a common custom that the woman is entitled to all her wearing apparel, therefore, any wedding dowry she receives she will normally wear. This quite often consists of coins, jewelry, bracelets and the like.
Bedouin Veil
Married women from Bethlehem and some other villages wore a specially padded hat with coins sewed on, displaying their family wealth for all to see. The more coins on the hat, the wealthier the family. The coins were part of bride wealth from the woman’s husband at the time of their marriage
You might spot a Bedouin Girl with a row of coins missing from her head dress,this would indicate that the family may have needed to pay for something such as for a doctor or a debt. The woman was the keeper of the family wealth. Just as the mother or in Hebrew the "em" was "the one that binds the family together”. The Husband would entrust this Wife to guard the Family finances!
After this thurough investigation into the Bedouin custom of wearing the Bridal dowry ,you can better understand how its origin is based on biblical wedding practices and customs.This had been done long before it was adopted by pagan groups who added amulets and talismans to ward off evil spirits.
**It is an unfortunate thing that beautiful Godly practices are taken and twisted into something worldly and unholy.This should not keep those who are doing good things from practicing these wonderful ancient customs.The bible clearly warns against celebrating as the pagans do but this does not mean that when pagans take a good thing and call it there own that it now becomes unholy!!Think about it!
Traditional Bedouin Bridal Gown
Traditional Bedouin Bridal Gown
The loose, unencumbered dress of the Bedouin woman is well suited to her nomadic life for it requires little maintenance. Although black is the dominating Bedouin color, women of some of the tribes dress in blue. The garment is long and ample. The armholes are deep to permit a wide sleeve. The dress opens to the waist and is usually unbelted. When a belt is worn it is tied around the hips and serves to support the figure as well as to adjust the length of the garment.
Old Bedouin costumes were richly embellished with fine hand embroidery worked in cross stitch. The design was embroidered across the front and back of the bodice, down the sleeves and along the main seams. Machine stitched embroidery now takes the place of hand work generally. The embroidery is of a contrasting color, usually red or yellow. Blue dresses are embroidered in black or red.
Bedouin wedding dresses are as gay as their everyday dresses may be somber. The bride buys the most luxurious material she can afford and if she has a choice she will pick a shiny, highly ornamental fabric such as brocade, cut velvet, or printed silk. The style of the dress is very simple and it has long sleeves. It may be caught in at the waist with a silver, gold, leather or folded fabric belt.
The above description of the wedding apparel worn by the bride is reminiscent of the language the Lord used in describing Israel as his betrothed wife:
"I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus was thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work . . ." (Ezekiel 16:10-13)
