Nigerian Wedding Traditions | What happens at a Nigerian Wedding?
“The entire community is welcome to come and celebrate, there’s often an abundance of food and drink available…”
Nigeria is a country rich in culture, with around 300 tribes and wedding traditions in each of them! To avoid making this blog too long, we’ll focus primarily on Yoruba and Igbo traditions, as they are more of the well-known tribes.
Before the wedding, there’s a couple of traditions to go through first. First off, if you’re the younger brother amongst your male siblings, you better hope he’s married! Traditionally, in some Nigerian tribes, men are not allowed to get married until their older brothers are. In Igbo families, marriages follow in order of seniority — younger siblings can end up postponing their own weddings until their older siblings get married, or else they can end up proceeding without the blessing of their family.
Wedding preparations begin with a formal introduction between the bride and groom’s families. Usually, this is the first time they meet face to face, and after they exchange gifts, a dowry is presented to the groom from the bride’s side of the family, containing a list of items and things he should do in order to prepare for the wedding. A traditional Igbo dowry will symbolise the bride’s price or value, so if the bride in question has a successful career or a high level of education, the dowry is likely to have many lavish and expensive items! Thankfully some families relax this custom to some degree, creating a toned-down-dowry that won’t bankrupt the groom before their wedding day. At least the couple won’t have to worry about the guest list — traditionally, most won’t even have one! The entire community is invited to celebrate their union, and there’s often an abundance of food and drink available in case the entire community actually does turn up in full!
Traditionally for Yoruba families, the bride and groom choose a colour scheme for the clothes of their respective family members. The colour-coordination helps separate them from the other guests and makes them easily identifiable, especially if the entire community attends. Couples often choose bright colours and fabrics, leading to amazingly beautiful outfits! This is called aso-ebi, which means Family Clothes in the Yoruba language. In order to give the guests plenty of time to get their outfits ready, the bride would announce what aso-ebi her family will wear months in advance. Nigerian brides can also wear a traditional headpiece known as a Gele, and her family and bridesmaids are likely to follow suit so they can honour their cultural traditions of the day. The groom also wears a traditional headpiece, known as a Fila.
A tradition the groom and his groomsmen often partake in is known as Prostration. It’s where the groom and his party will lay flat on the ground with their faces down (like a plank), symbolising him honouring the bride’s family for raising his future wife. They may also do this for the groom’s family to honour them as well. The groom can also choose to do a tradition similar to the western tradition of carrying the bride of over the threshold — simply by carrying the bride, he shows that he has the strength to take care of her during their marriage. A long standing tradition for the bride, however, involves her guests and family members throwing money at her, also known as money spraying. While this isn’t mandatory for all guests, it’s expected of older relatives or family friends, and sometimes the bridesmaids are tasked with picking up all that cash!
The food at the wedding is traditionally organised by the family of the bride — an entire meal is prepared by the mother of the bride and her family in her home kitchen, but couples can always choose to find a caterer instead to make the process smoother. Guests can feel free to wander on and off the dance floor, and refresh themselves with a home-cooked meal when they get hungry. Sometimes both sides of the family may bring trays of food and gifts to each other, to symbolise their connection. The food itself is likely to be spicy and hot, and can range between foods you swallow without chewing (like eba or pounded yam), to soups or rice (e.g. jollof rice, coconut rice). There may also be what is known as ‘small chops’, much like appetisers or finger food — ranging from chin-chin, suya, pepper soup and more!
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