I'm UnComfortabe With Marriage Ceremonies...!

I don’t really like wedding ceremonies.-especially the ones organised or celebrated in Nigeria.
However, I found my self attending one two weeks ago- just to ease tension from the political embarrassment happening back home.

Wedding ceremonies are boring and pretentious in most cases. They are marked by an extravagant outward show that do not reflect the sanctity of marriage-rather, these ceremonies ostentatiously, portray the vanity of man.

There I was, like a fish bobbed out of water. I immediately knew I didn’t belong to such showy gathering full of ‘notice me’ people. I had to suffer for three quarter of an hour-punishment I overtly deserve for being the cousin of the bride. It was the most boring three quarter of an hour I have spent in a long time!
I would have preferred watching or reading the unfolding comic drama taking place in the national assembly in Abuja.

What I witness was a carnival of some sort- not a marriage ceremony. How people can participate in a such a show of hypocrisy still beats me. Mark you, I am not anti-marriage. What I despise is the carnival-like splurgy and misplaced ceremonies that follow the so-called union of two people.

Most marriage ceremonies are insufferably outlandish-especially if the couple or one of them is a ‘money miss-road’ fellow. My cousin (the bride in this case) is a lawyer. A budding lawyer for that matter. So, she couldn’t have raised seven hundred and fifty (N750,000) thousand naira (about $6,000) just for the venue for the reception as I gathered.

The groom whom I hardly know and have never met before the wedding day is a business man. His line of business, I can’t tell…yet, there were over five hundred bottles of champagne and all kinds of wines…
Why they would rent or hire two live bands is beyond my comprehension. The ensuing idiotic theme tunes blaring from all spheres made the already humid air intolerable. Meaningful conversation was an impossibility.

I asked an extended relative if she knew the groom well enough. By that I mean the groom’s line of business.
To this I got …’he is very powerful business man…’ I see. May be this chap is the one who got the award for the controversial contract for the renovation of the speaker/deputy speaker’s residents in Abuja. Otherwise, ‘na proper money -mis-road be dis’…

For the better part of forty-five minute, I saw the stupidity and folly of some Nigerians. A man actually stood out in the crowd by spraying hundred($100) dollar bills on the couple and the sycophant musicians-who went on rampage drumming and crooning loudly for attention. The whole scenario was a bedlam of starchy igeles and the overbearing smell of new clothes mixed with cheap and conflicting fragrance of expensive perfumes.

Everyone seems to be happy. To be more appropriate, everyone was pretending to be happy. Or were they really happy?

I guess I was the only sad soul there. I feel so sorry for my cousin. She looked tired and frail too. May be she fasted for forty days and forty nights for the this wedding to actualise . Well, I wish her all the happiness she deserves…and her husband too.
And I hope this stupendous ceremony was not a make -believe…and a reflection of our folly!