Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Muslim Wedding Traditions in Indonesia


Muslims around the world all live by and obey the same basic Islamic laws. Some Muslim traditions, however, are blended with national traditions varying from country to coountry, and often even within areas of a specific country. In Indonesia, for instance, young people are still bound by Muslim rules when it comes down to questions such as dating and getting married. Here, as elsewhere, dating is seen only as a way to get acquainted with one's wife or husband to be shortly before the wedding takes place.

Meetings always take place in amongst the presence of families to avoid physical desires taking over and often marriages have been arranged, although the young couple will usually be concluded in the final choice of spouse. In any case, they often have next to no time to really get used to each other. With the age of the Internet, life has become a little easier with respect to finding and getting acquainted to a possible partner. Special Muslim dating websites provide a safe surrounding for young Indonesians to meet and interact with other members of their faith.

One such facility is provided by Alnaddy, which are dedicated to ensuring that Muslim men and muslim women from Indonesia and the rest of the world can safely and legally interact .Because they can interact without fear of immoral activities, parents are usually happy to allow them to talk to to potential suitors without much interference. When a courtship like this reaches the point where marriage is seriously considered, an intercedent will approach the bride's family and make a formal proposal of marriage during a ceremony involving refreshments and the giving of gifts. An engagement meeting and formal announcement of marriage is then arranged, where a cleansing ceremony will be performed and passages will be read from the Quran. This is obviously very much part of traditional Muslim weddings throughout the world.

Indonesian weddings all have some things in common. These include the fact that they are usually large, raucous events with elaborate dresses, masses of food and dancing. Attendance by all who are invited is essential, as not turning up is seen as a serious offence .Some of the regional differences consist of the Bugis tribe performing a ceremony called the nikah to marry the couple, with the parent not being present; in Northern Sumatra, poetry is recited by the bride's family to welcome the arriving groom in their home, where the ceremony is typically held and on Bali, the groom traditionally wears a sword as part of his wedding outfit.

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