Armenian Village Wedding
Today I drove the getaway-car in the wedding that I got invited to last night.
As I mentioned in my last log, last night I got a call from a friend who invited me to his wedding and he asked if we could us my car to bring the bride from her village to his house?
This morning after only 4 hours of sleep, I drove my car to my friend’s house and there his neighbor washed it and then his relatives decorated the car.
A caravan of 6 cars made their way to Red Village, which is about 20 kilometers outside of Stepanagert.
From what I thought was to be a traditional Armenian village wedding, turned out to be some kind of compromise of what I understand is a newer Armenian tradition which is gaining popularity and that is bride abduction.
I learned this before we left Martuni and when we got a flat tire 10 kilometers outside of Red Village, I could only think this was God sending a message that just maybe what we were doing was breaking some of our old Armenian cultural norms.
It seems that my friend had last week abducted his bride and kept her for 3 days to break her down and convince her to become his wife. Not that I know this to be a fact, but once she gave in, he broke this new tradition and allowed his new bride to return home so he could then make the whole thing look like a mutually agreed on marriage (the new tradition is you don’t have a wedding and you just apply for a marriage certificate and get on with life).
It was clear when we got to the village that the bride’s family was not too happy with loosing their daughter in this way and the bride herself for the ceremony in her village for the most part cried and when expected to dance, just stood there on the dance-floor and looked in shock. Not once did I see her smile. I really felt very bad for this girl, but thought that maybe this was one of those abductions that both bride and groom were consenting and it was the parents that objected and for this the bride was feeling bad about what she was putting her parents through and for this reason was not in a festive mood.
Though the toasts were nice and there was some dancing, for the most part I just sat in my place, didn’t drink (since I was driving) and just did my best to conceal my discomfort of participating in something that I don’t approve of at all. I guess I was also bothered that in the morning I was told that since I am the one bringing the bride, then if she was not a good bride, I was jokingly told by my friend’s aunt that I would be hung on the mulberry tree in my friend’s yard (she pointed to this the tree while saying this).
As the ceremony finished in Red Village and we were waiting to leave, I called my friend’s aunt, who was back at his house helping with the preparation and told her that she needs to very quickly find someone with a saw to cut down the mulberry tree, as we she be back to Martuni in a couple of hours. She understood what I was saying and said she would take care of it.
We left Red Village and just to make sure we made it back without another flat tire delaying us, due to not having a spare, we sent my flat tire with another car to get it repaired and if we did get a flat, then they would come across us and would provide us with an inflated spare.
We drove back towards Martuni and in light conversation, the bride did smile a couple of times, which gave me some hope that just maybe she was a willing abductee and this whole ceremony and the life they lead from here on would be fine.
As we got into Martuni and before we could get to the license department, where they would have their official civil marriage, one of the cars that was behind us, frantically signaled me to pull over and told me that I was spilling gasoline from under my car.
We took a look and sure as can be, it seems the hose on my fuel-pump sprung a leak and I was loosing gasoline, not to mention that it was spraying on the electrical wires that power the pump. One spark from those wires and that would have put an end to this whole ceremony. Of course all I could think of is this was another sign from God, as I’ve never had so many things go wrong with my car in one day.
So the bride, groom, best-man and maid of honor got into the other cars to continue on to the license department and I waited with my car to see about how I was going to get it fixed?
The car with the spare-tire pulled up and said that they could not figure out how the tire went flat, as there were no nails and the tube was torn, but this could have happened when I drove 50 meters before realizing the tire had gone flat. They had to replace the tube.
So the spare-tire people looked at my fuel-pump and we decided that we would leave the car where it is, as it was Sunday and there was no need to call a mechanic to come down to fix it today since this would take us away from the wedding.
I got in their car and we drove to the license department where the civil ceremony was just finishing and I was there in time to open the bottle of Champaign. As the video camera rolled, I popped the cork, but there was no pop and the darn thing was flat. A second bottle of tropical fruit Champaign was close by, so to get the popping and flowing suds of the bottle for the camera, I tried to pop that bottle open and found it had a screw-cap and was also somewhat flat.
We all congratulated the bride and groom of their union and headed towards the groom’s house. When we neared the house, in tradition of an Armenian village wedding, music and dancing started a block away from their gate as we walked to the house to announce the union and arrival.
We made our way into their yard and where the bride should have been dancing, she again was in shock and just stood, not knowing what to do.
Their were two plates at the entrance of the door and as they entered the door, they broke the plates and everyone cheered.
I was presented with a gift from the aunt for bringing the bride, at which time I reminded her that the tree needs to be cut down and maybe replaced with a smaller tree with small brittle branches.
It was 6:30 PM at this point and since the reception was not to start until 8 PM I decided to go home to clean up a bit, as from the tire change and poking around at the fuel-pump, I got my shirt a bit soiled.
I got home and it was a bit hot, so I undressed and I guess since I only had 4 hours of sleep last night and also was a bit saddened at being around the bride who was not having all that much fun, when I laid down to take a 1 hour nap, I didn’t wake until midnight.
So I missed the rest of the wedding/reception and though I would guess it will be going on until 4 or 5 AM, I’m not sure if I’m in the mood to go down there now, but I think it would be wise to make an appearance.
Today I drove the getaway-car in the wedding that I got invited to last night.
As I mentioned in my last log, last night I got a call from a friend who invited me to his wedding and he asked if we could us my car to bring the bride from her village to his house?
This morning after only 4 hours of sleep, I drove my car to my friend’s house and there his neighbor washed it and then his relatives decorated the car.
A caravan of 6 cars made their way to Red Village, which is about 20 kilometers outside of Stepanagert.
From what I thought was to be a traditional Armenian village wedding, turned out to be some kind of compromise of what I understand is a newer Armenian tradition which is gaining popularity and that is bride abduction.
I learned this before we left Martuni and when we got a flat tire 10 kilometers outside of Red Village, I could only think this was God sending a message that just maybe what we were doing was breaking some of our old Armenian cultural norms.
It seems that my friend had last week abducted his bride and kept her for 3 days to break her down and convince her to become his wife. Not that I know this to be a fact, but once she gave in, he broke this new tradition and allowed his new bride to return home so he could then make the whole thing look like a mutually agreed on marriage (the new tradition is you don’t have a wedding and you just apply for a marriage certificate and get on with life).
It was clear when we got to the village that the bride’s family was not too happy with loosing their daughter in this way and the bride herself for the ceremony in her village for the most part cried and when expected to dance, just stood there on the dance-floor and looked in shock. Not once did I see her smile. I really felt very bad for this girl, but thought that maybe this was one of those abductions that both bride and groom were consenting and it was the parents that objected and for this the bride was feeling bad about what she was putting her parents through and for this reason was not in a festive mood.
Though the toasts were nice and there was some dancing, for the most part I just sat in my place, didn’t drink (since I was driving) and just did my best to conceal my discomfort of participating in something that I don’t approve of at all. I guess I was also bothered that in the morning I was told that since I am the one bringing the bride, then if she was not a good bride, I was jokingly told by my friend’s aunt that I would be hung on the mulberry tree in my friend’s yard (she pointed to this the tree while saying this).
As the ceremony finished in Red Village and we were waiting to leave, I called my friend’s aunt, who was back at his house helping with the preparation and told her that she needs to very quickly find someone with a saw to cut down the mulberry tree, as we she be back to Martuni in a couple of hours. She understood what I was saying and said she would take care of it.
We left Red Village and just to make sure we made it back without another flat tire delaying us, due to not having a spare, we sent my flat tire with another car to get it repaired and if we did get a flat, then they would come across us and would provide us with an inflated spare.
We drove back towards Martuni and in light conversation, the bride did smile a couple of times, which gave me some hope that just maybe she was a willing abductee and this whole ceremony and the life they lead from here on would be fine.
As we got into Martuni and before we could get to the license department, where they would have their official civil marriage, one of the cars that was behind us, frantically signaled me to pull over and told me that I was spilling gasoline from under my car.
We took a look and sure as can be, it seems the hose on my fuel-pump sprung a leak and I was loosing gasoline, not to mention that it was spraying on the electrical wires that power the pump. One spark from those wires and that would have put an end to this whole ceremony. Of course all I could think of is this was another sign from God, as I’ve never had so many things go wrong with my car in one day.
So the bride, groom, best-man and maid of honor got into the other cars to continue on to the license department and I waited with my car to see about how I was going to get it fixed?
The car with the spare-tire pulled up and said that they could not figure out how the tire went flat, as there were no nails and the tube was torn, but this could have happened when I drove 50 meters before realizing the tire had gone flat. They had to replace the tube.
So the spare-tire people looked at my fuel-pump and we decided that we would leave the car where it is, as it was Sunday and there was no need to call a mechanic to come down to fix it today since this would take us away from the wedding.
I got in their car and we drove to the license department where the civil ceremony was just finishing and I was there in time to open the bottle of Champaign. As the video camera rolled, I popped the cork, but there was no pop and the darn thing was flat. A second bottle of tropical fruit Champaign was close by, so to get the popping and flowing suds of the bottle for the camera, I tried to pop that bottle open and found it had a screw-cap and was also somewhat flat.
We all congratulated the bride and groom of their union and headed towards the groom’s house. When we neared the house, in tradition of an Armenian village wedding, music and dancing started a block away from their gate as we walked to the house to announce the union and arrival.
We made our way into their yard and where the bride should have been dancing, she again was in shock and just stood, not knowing what to do.
Their were two plates at the entrance of the door and as they entered the door, they broke the plates and everyone cheered.
I was presented with a gift from the aunt for bringing the bride, at which time I reminded her that the tree needs to be cut down and maybe replaced with a smaller tree with small brittle branches.
It was 6:30 PM at this point and since the reception was not to start until 8 PM I decided to go home to clean up a bit, as from the tire change and poking around at the fuel-pump, I got my shirt a bit soiled.
I got home and it was a bit hot, so I undressed and I guess since I only had 4 hours of sleep last night and also was a bit saddened at being around the bride who was not having all that much fun, when I laid down to take a 1 hour nap, I didn’t wake until midnight.
So I missed the rest of the wedding/reception and though I would guess it will be going on until 4 or 5 AM, I’m not sure if I’m in the mood to go down there now, but I think it would be wise to make an appearance.
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