Traditional Khmer Wedding (Part I)

Traditional Khmer wedding is one of the happiest and emotional occasions for a Khmer family, especially the bride and the groom. The groom and the parents of the groom are busy writing names of the invited guests and so tired of making long journey inviting family members, friends and other members of the communities who are living away from their home. The number of guests invited depends on financial availability of each family. The smallest number of guests varies from 150 to 500 and the biggest from 500 to 2000.


The wedding ceremony typically lasts from three days to an entire week. This depends, on the one hand, on financial capability of families. There is a variety of traditional wedding programs to take place, but now people think of time and money consuming. So, it can last only one day and one afternoon. One afternoon is dedicated for the three or five monks to cite and pray for the good luck for the newly married couple. This afternoon, family members are gathered to listen to prayers, to share in the celebrations and offer their blessings. This ceremony calls forth for those who have passed away, both family and friends, to offer their blessings and observe the wedding, if not in body, in spirit. It is a time to reflect on those near and dear to our hearts and remember to include them in our happiness.

The next day is the day of grand affair. It takes one full morning to celebrate the wedding of the couple. Family, friends, and other members of the community come together to share in the celebration. Early morning, the bride and the groom and maids are dressed like royalty, full of color and traditional festivity.  The family members and close friends who were particularly invited to join the procession are ready outside the house. The Khmer musicians and singers are also ready to perform. They are going to play particular music tunes according to each consecutive program. As usual, around 7am, the priest invites people to pick platters of gifts placed inside the bride’s home out. The family members and close friends walk out to the destination instructed by the priest. Customarily, gifts should be placed on platters in pair, for example, one or two platters of cakes, one or two platters of oranges etc….  that is to say two or four people hold one or two pairs of platters of gifts.


Now we can see people stand in 2 lines holding each a platter of gift​ in pair. The experienced priest arranges who stand in the front and second line etc…. In the front line, a boy and a girl dressed in royalty holding each a container symbolizing holly water. Second, the groom dressed like prince holding long plate of holly betel flowers, where his parents stand in between holding holly boxes of betel stuffs. Next in honor, man and woman carry platters of betel nuts, and 2 young girls carrying huge bouquets of flowers. Behind the frontline, stand three young men with 2 umbrellas giving shelter to the groom​ who holds the sacred betel flowers.
 

There one can see two long queues of relatives and friends carrying platters of gifts waiting for the order from the priest to move. The procession symbolizes the journey of the prince Preah Thong to meet his bride the princess Neang Neak. The groom’s procession approaches the bride’s home led by a band of musicians and singers. The bride customarily waits at her parent’s house and the bride’s parent come out to greet the procession and meet their counter-part.

The procession reaches the bride’s home and their parents greet each other and the groom’s parent hand over the holly box of betel stuff to the bride’s parent symbolizing friendship and love to the family, whereas the groom hands over the betel flowers to the bride symbolizing good luck and all blessings. This event takes a bit longer time as they need to take best photos for souvenirs and the rest of the procession is being invited to enter into the bride’s home to leave all platters of gifts and relax. That is the end of one special traditional event. All the guests are invited to eat spicy porridge and desserts. Then some friends may leave the house if they wish. Some very close friends still stay here until the end of the morning event.
(to be continued to Part II)

Thank you for reading this part I