Say what you want about it, but stories about passionate love romance and affection just never get old.
They have and will always remain one of literature’s favorite tropes, and we never seem to get enough of it. Because really, who doesn’t like to hear a good love story?
In many narratives, the culmination of a really good love story is the marriage and the wedding ceremony that announces it and makes it official.
In the old days, when a Zulu girl reached maturity, her father organised a coming-out ceremony to make her availability for marriage known. In fact, in traditional Zulu culture, the bride actually chose her husband.
Much of that tradition is changed today; however, Zulu brides are still adorned with beautiful beads around their necks and th
e customary red and white ochre designs on their legs and arms during the traditional wedding ceremony.
The ceremony is marked by a ritual dance competition between the families of the bride and the groom and the payment of the bride price by the groom’s family. The bride eventually leaves her parent’s house with parting gifts of mats, beads, and baskets. And don’t be surprised to see the ceremony topped off with a western-styled wedding buffet!
The Zulu wedding can take many shapes and forms. Usually the bride changes at least three times on her wedding day, showing off to her in-laws how beautiful she is in different colours. Althoug
h it is not a Zulu custom for the bride to wear a traditional Christian white wedding gown, nowadays many brides prefer to do so.
The wedding service takes place at the local church, and during this time the bride is dressed usually in white. After church the wedding party moves to the bridegroom’s home. The bride changes into a traditional Zulu outfit. One of the highlights of a traditional wedding comes when the parties from the bride’s and the groom’s families compete with each other through the medium of Zulu dance and songs.
