...and the bride wore hot pink....
Tet is fast approaching! Time to break out the red lanterns, gold decorations and get married!
Tet is an important holiday and festival in Vietnam, marking the start of a new lunar year. Currently, we are in the year of the buffalo; after Tet it will be the year of the tiger. Apparently it is not so lucky to be married in a year of the tiger so a lot of young Soc Trang-ians are squeezing in their weddings before Tet.
Weddings are incredibly important here, and the receptions afterwards are massive!
The weekend before last we went to a wedding reception for the son of one of Dan’s tennis friends. Last weekend we went to a wedding of the son of one of the drivers at work. The receptions were huge! And incredibly noisy! The first reception (mercifully) didn’t have singers performing Vietnamese love songs at an ear-shattering level; instead entertainment was provided by a bunch of young hip-hop dancers (with a little bit of singing thrown in). Not that we were spared the singing anyway, both the reception venues were hosting not one but two wedding parties each! What went on in one party (singing, speeches, music, dancing) was clearly heard by the other party! The second reception did feature live singing and dancing (of sorts), nearly drowned out by the noise of the other reception party happening in the same room (cunningly separated by archways and tinsel). Never fear, just turn the volume up a bit! They did the same? Turn it up a bit more! It took a few hours after the reception for my hearing to return to normal.
It was all good fun though. The food was amazing (4 courses, including battered crab, mushrooms, fried chicken and topped off with seafood soup) and the beer was...copious... Luckily, being female, I can get away with not drinking beer and am free to join in all the toasts with my cup of Pepsi. Dan, however, is not so lucky. He got dragged into an awful lot of nam muoi/nam muoi (50% scull) and tram by tram (100% scull)...as well as starting a few himself of course.
Another strange aspect of weddings here that I haven’t quite figured out the meaning of… halfway through the reception the bride will go and change into another dress – similar in design to a wedding dress – but in a neon-bright colour. At the first wedding the bride wore hot pink. At the second wedding the bride wore mermaid blue. I’ve seen so many stores around the Mekong Delta selling these rainbow-coloured wedding dresses and couldn’t figure out what they were for. I still don’t really know what it is all about, but I have seen some rather fetching sea-green and pumpkin-orange gowns for sale, maybe I should get one just in case I ever get married…. (that was a joke everyone! Please no more comments about how I’m going to come back from Vietnam either engaged, pregnant or with an adopted Vietnamese baby!)
Over and out for now, but next time I must tell you about our motorbike ride around the countryside and impromptu invitation to a birthday party…
Well Im up to speed now, looks like a great time is being had. In particular the beer drinking. However, Im not sure I agree with ice in a beer. That is just wrong.
ReplyDeleteI can remember several conversations with you about marriage, babies, adoption and drinking snake appendage wine. Dont limit yourself now by striking them off the list. In 6 months time they all might sound like great ideas ;)
Lorin
Ohhh I think perhaps you should invest in a pumpkin orange wedding dress for your impending nuptuals.. unless fluro yellow is available. Tehe.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're having fun enjoying the Vietnamese festivities!
No way to both those suggestions! I've had plenty of rice wine and 'special forest fruit' wine - they are both horrible enough, no need for me to try snake wine! And I don't really think pumpkin orange is my colour....or fluro yellow for that matter!
ReplyDelete