Moroccan Wedding

This was such an amazing evening! The bride, whom we had met just a few days ago, had told us to meet a bus at the end of a main road in Akko. These were very vague directions, and we were unsure of where this mysterious bus would be or what type of bus it would be. Walking along this main road we stopped at a few bus stations asking people if they knew of a bus for this wedding reception. No luck, so we kept walking. Finally we reached a Kikar, a traffic circle, and the road ended. On the other side of the kikar we saw a small group of people gathering, carrying trays of food and gifts. We had found the mysterious "bus stop". We started talking with the women in our broken Hebrew and they were all so excited to meet us- the bride's "American friends". There were two young girls there, age ten and 13, both of them we quickly befriended since our Hebrew was almost as good as their English. The bus arrived and we all pilled on, and drove around 20 minutes to a beautiful Kibbutz. As we were walking up to the house, the women from the bus, the mother and the sister of the bride, began yelling in high pitched (Moroccan fashion) voices. We were greeted with Moroccan music, hugs, and kisses all around. Everyone seemed to be greeting each other at once and I immediately felt like I did not belong. However, after a while we found an empty table, sat down and began trying all of the food that was set out on the table in front of us. Everything was wonderful! From hummus, to eggplant sauce, olives, diced tomatoes, the list goes on and on and this was only the appetizers we were told.

After we had all eaten a fair share of the appetizers, a woman from Akko that we knew came over and insisted that we go and dance with her. She pulls us onto the dance area, and we shake our hips and wave our hands like everyone else. It was wonderful. Everyone takes a small break from dancing when more food arrives, chicken kebabs, hamburgers, spicy hot dogs, potatoes, ect, everything was wonderful and we quickly fill our stomachs. After the main course of food I decide to go back to dancing, the bride and groom are lifted up on people's shoulders as we dance around them in a circle, swaying our hips and hands in time to the music.

After a while the DJ announces that Henna is taking place in the decorative tent which was set up, we were encouraged, by our Israeli friends to join in the celebration. The bride and groom sat in elegant chairs while the brides mother sang to them-- I think it was a type of blessing. Everyone was surrounding the tent as the Henna instructor placed Henna on the bride and groom and then passed the bowl of Henna around to everyone else. We all took a finger full of Henna and placed it in the palm of our hand. After a few minutes of letting it dry we rubbed it in a circle in our palm and wiped it off with a towel. This symbolized that we attended a wedding ceremony and the Henna will stay on for a couple of days. We learned that this is an ancient Moroccan tradition.

It was a wonderful night, and we met many new friends who have invited us over for dinner already.