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Traditional Weddings
Jun. 8th, 2009 04:22 pmWe went to the wedding of a dear friend of ours this past Sunday. We've known him since he was 16, and been friends with him, his parents, and his siblings for over twelve years.
He and his new bride are very strongly embracing their Jewish faith at this point in their lives, so the wedding and reception were designed to be very traditional.
I had gone to the wedding of an Atheist/Jewish couple right out of college, and it was a beautiful short ceremony, with a really fun reception (I have fond memories of dancing to a polka with a very old Jewish gentleman.) That experience, however, did not properly prepare me for Sunday.
The actual ceremony was also fairly short (maybe 20 minutes), but it was also nearly entirely in a language I could not understand. That was alright. The strangest part, for me personally, came later at the reception.
The men and women were separated into opposite sides of a large room with a chest high divider between us. We spent the next three hours, eating, dancing (this was my favorite part, I love the circle dancing), and celebrating with the women separated from the men. My son was the only one in our family allowed to tread in both areas of the room due to his tender young age of three.
He and his new bride are very strongly embracing their Jewish faith at this point in their lives, so the wedding and reception were designed to be very traditional.
I had gone to the wedding of an Atheist/Jewish couple right out of college, and it was a beautiful short ceremony, with a really fun reception (I have fond memories of dancing to a polka with a very old Jewish gentleman.) That experience, however, did not properly prepare me for Sunday.
The actual ceremony was also fairly short (maybe 20 minutes), but it was also nearly entirely in a language I could not understand. That was alright. The strangest part, for me personally, came later at the reception.
The men and women were separated into opposite sides of a large room with a chest high divider between us. We spent the next three hours, eating, dancing (this was my favorite part, I love the circle dancing), and celebrating with the women separated from the men. My son was the only one in our family allowed to tread in both areas of the room due to his tender young age of three.
