MOROCCAN WEDDING
We checked into the Riad Ritaj in Meknes around four and met Said and his sister, Salma, who run the hotel.
The reception seemed unusually busy. Many smartly dressed men and women sat at round tables at the sides of a central courtyard where a fountain bubbled onto a mosaic floor.
Said said, “You will rest and have Moroccan mint tea and then we will take your luggage to your room and then you will come down and join our friends at the wedding. It is one of our staff. She is being married now upstairs.”
It wasn’t long before loud dance music began and we watched over the upstairs balcony as women and children danced.
I took some time to make my way downstairs and by the time I joined the party, Sharon was on the dance floor with a dozen women and children. She was enthusiastically dancing in the arms of another guest to the heavy Arabic beat.
Those who know me will attest to my dancing skill. However, high arm waving, gyrating hips and loud ululating is in direct contrast to my finger pointing, foot planted, bottom poking out style, so I sidled over to a dark corner, and tried to look inconspicious on a settee.
Before long the bride came downstairs to be greeted by the same loud ululating of the women and the flashes of their mobile phones. In the disco lights, a machine spat out a rainbow of bubbles. A man in a bright shirt beckoned us to join the throng who were clapping and gyrating to the beat so in our best belly dancing style we joined in.
Soon the nervous groom joined the party and together they paraded the room to claps, more ululating and flashes.
Waiters brought large silver-lidded trays to the tables and we stood to leave.
A man came to intercept us and invited us to sit at his table and join the feast, but as we already were a little nervous about intruding on the celebration, we politely retreated to the upstairs balcony to watch the proceedings from above.
Music and dancing continued to the bubbles, coloured lights and fog. Women folded money into the top of the bride’s dress as she danced with her now less nervous husband and guests, mostly women, made circles around the couple then joined hands with them and jiggled.
It was a continuously noisy and exuberant celebration and if the walls and floor were not made of rammed earth, they would have shook.
What a privilege to witness such an event!