I just returned from the wedding of my sister. It was for 2 meaningful days. It is time of family reunion and joy, blessing, celebration, tradition and love. I would love to show you some beautiful photos from the wedding. There are three phases of wedding celebration: preparation day or Jol Ruong Kar day, wedding ceremony day and last is the reception. It was 3days before and now, all program can be held in one day and half.
Wedding day: all traditional ceremonies and rituals, one after one.
The rituals were for 3 days before but now, it is shortened to half day ceremony including gift offering ceremony - fruit counting rituals, ring exchange, hair cutting, blessing and gift giving to couples, and 7 rounds of candle blessingsβ¦ It is accompanied by live traditional music band, lead by a couple of clergy men, food offering to ancestors to announce that the couple is now marriedβ¦
Each ritual has its own meaning, some people donβt even know what they are for:
Ring exchange ritual: wear the ring at the left finger as it connects to the heart
Head on the floor ritual: Lowing your head to the floor together in front of your parents means that you both are tight to the couple life, you collapse, go forward slow, or quick, depends on both of them take care of each other, take responsibility.
Areca flower blessing ritual: relatives spread areca flower on you means your prosperity depends mainly on the couple to take care, not bring in the fire or burn it out.
Hair cutting ritual: it means that you must cut your longer hair or make them one standard for two, cut whatβs bad out, bring whatβs good in, outside of the family uses discipline and inside use sympathy.
Sitting in the seven circle of happiness fire ritual or 7 rounds of candle blessings: it shows that your lifeβs happiness depends mainly on patience and hard work.
All ritual revolves around one special flower - betel nut flower or areca nut flower- represents value, purity, and normally it is very difficult to find it. In order to cut it for the wedding, they have the rituals for the person to claim up and cut it, then give it to the groom. The groom will carry this (not letting it slide or drop at all), to give the parents of the wife to-be toshow gratitude towards their parents and siblings. Nowadays, they just buy it from the market. They shorten the ceremony so no time for the pickup anymore. In the last ritual,the master of ceremony (clergy man) will ask people to break the flower and then use as the blessing flowers to spread on the couple at the very end of ceremony!
Reception: guests were invited to join in the wedding. Small wedding invites about 200 guests (relatives and friends) and big wedding of rich people or middle class family invites up to 800-1200 guests.
Color in the wedding: each ritual has different sets of outfits, colors and hairstyles. Gold or yellow color is usually used in the morning to represent bright sunshine or the bright starter of new phase of life⦠Pink, green, blue, purple are more pleasant so it is used in the reception. Red is a lucky color for Chinese but used mixed in Cambodian culture too. Probably, it means lucky.
First of God bless the newly wedded couple. I just loved the post because all cooked packed in banana leaves which good for health from old days they used leaves but now days if we use people he say it looks shabby in weddings but I love it.
Were as now days people use all over either with plastic & Aluminum foil. At wedding time.
Congratulations on your sisterβs wedding, all the best! Can you tell us a bit more about those rituals @Sophia_Cambodia ? I think it is quite interesting to learn about the wedding culture in different countries.
I like the bright red and gold colors do they mean something?
@VasT thank you for the blessing. Gold color is usually used in the morning to represent bright sunshine or the bright starter of new phase of life⦠Red is a lucky color for Chinese but used mixed in Cambodian culture too. Probably, it means lucky.
The rituals were for 3 days before but now, it is shortened to half day ceremony including gift offering ceremony - fruit counting rituals, ring exchange, hair cutting, blessing and gift giving to couples, and 7 rounds of candle blessingsβ¦ It is accompanied by live traditional music band, lead by a couple of clergy men, food offering to ancestors to announce that the couple is now marriedβ¦
@Sophia_Cambodia Thank you for letting us to visit this unusual ceremony with you. It looks really solemnly and beautiful.
Iβll write you about an interesting Ukrainian traditional wedding custom (I had written it once here in Connect, someone could read it already).
Itβs the spruce decorated with flowers and bows so that it resembles a thick flowering tree - the symbol of youth and beauty, as well as the well-being of the young. Itβs called βgiltseβ there. And namely giltse should be in the most prominent and honorable place during the whole wedding celebration.
The honorable role to bear it from one place for another during all the wedding belongs to the male-witness (βdruzhkaβ), and itβs not the easy role, as he should bring the tree from the house of the groom for the house of the bride (traditionally on foot, but nowadays itβs according the situation), then in the registry office, throughout the walk, and only in restaurant he can put it in a prominent place near the couple and relax.
At the end of the day when guests are treated with a wedding loaf everybody gets a branch with a flower from this tree as a gift from newlyweds; the top is for the bride and groom.
@OlgaKlimchik my god, what a beautiful tradition! Thank you for writing up. It sounds marvelous!*
Traditionally, it is very similar. You know, no matter what flower you use for the wedding, there is one significant flower that we use till today is the betel nut flower or Areca nut flower- represents value, purity, and normally it is very difficult to find it. In order to cut it for the wedding, they have the rituals for the person to claim up and cut it, then give it to the groom. The groom will carry this (not letting it slide or drop at all), to give the parents of the wife to-be toshow gratitude towards their parents and siblings. Nowadays, they just buy it from the market. They shorten the ceremony so no time for the pickup anymore.
Then, the master of ceremony will ask people to break the flower and then use as the blessing flowers to spread on the couple at the very end of ceremony!
Another great post @Sophia_Cambodia . Too bad I missed it earlier. Your sister looks like a goddess in her wedding dress. Please donβt forget to tell her how pretty she is. It looks like we have many similarities with the rituals between Cambodian and Bangladeshi weddings and a lot of differences too. I am afraid, I have to politely refuse to accept those cakes. They look really nice, but as I donβt eat bacon, I canβt eat that cake either. (Do you have any vegetarian version of this cake by any chance?)
Dear @SoniaK thank you and I will make sure to tell her about that You are so sweet dear.
About the cake, we have many kinds of cakes in the wedding ceremony but the two are very important for the wedding. You can have other cakes instead :), like banana wrapping cake and other.
The wedding at the countryside is different to the one in Phnom Penh or town. They are more civilized and everything has to be purchased where in countryside, you can ask your neighbors & relatives to help packaging cakes and stuff like that.
This is what I call a delicious post, @Sophia_Cambodia . Absolutely mouthwatering. Those cakes, especially the one on top of the comment, makes me hungry. The process of making the cakes made me miss my childhood and my village. We have similar kind of cake making process too. In the hill tracts area, they make cakes with sticky rice inside bamboos and burn it. It turns out delicious too. You also reminded me of Assam, an state of India, where my motherβs ancestors are from. They have similar traditions of making cakes too. Thank you Sophia for sharing this. I hope one day I can taste those too.
