Wedding Traditions: Fat? or Skinny?

Date:   5/31/2006 3:31:09 PM ( 18 y ago)

Over the weekend, my Fiance and I caught the tail end of a Documentary on a tribe, which I didn't catch the name of, in Africa and the families preparation before the Wedding. It was very fascinating and we both sat their with our mouths hanging open because of the different priorities they had. I love watching these Documentaries on Discovery and National Geographic and learning about the vast differences and beautiful ways of other cultures.

What really got me was this young girl, maybe 16 and thin by US standards, and her Wedding Goal. In their culture, a beautiful bride is a fat bride....... 200 or more pounds. So, for months before the Wedding she was forced by her family to sleep all day, feed on cream, butter, and heavy banana starch. I kept thinking... Sheesh! If I am gonna be forced to gain massive amounts of weight I at least want to be eating something yummy.... not straight up butter and cream!! Icky!! I also thought how interesting it was that at the actual Wedding ceremony, a poet by tradition, stands up and talks about the new bride and her life ahead of her. The catch here is that he refers to her as a cow throughout the poem. I guess it really made me stop and think for a second..... there she is on one side of the planet bulking up before her Wedding and here I am doing the exact opposite. Humans are funny, aren't they?

Here is something I quickly Googled online about this process...........

"Among the Calabari people in southeastern Nigeria, brides are sent to so-called fattening rooms or fattening farms before their weddings. They are not permitted to leave the farms for a few weeks, during which their caretakers prepare copious helpings of food and massage them into a rounder shape. At the end of their stay, before the wedding, the brides are paraded in the village square so everyone can admire their fullness."

 

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URL:   http://curezone.org/blogs/fm.asp?i=981995

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