Wedding party in Ocotlán

[bixaorellana]

Saturday I went with a friend to a a combination wedding & baptism celebration in Ocotlán. I believe I've explained elsewhere about how couples here often having a civil marriage, then wait & save to have a big splash-out church wedding & party later. In the case of the couple featured in this thread, by the time the church wedding finally occurred, they had three children, thus the incorporation of a baptismal celebration.

Because of other commitments, we skipped the Mass & arrived as the food was being served at the party. It was kind of a shame to miss Mass in the Ocotlán church, which is extremely charming.

some info about Mexican wedding traditions

So, here are some snaps from the party ~~

a traditional dance: the wife has a rolled up tortilla in her mouth & her husband attempts to steal it with his.


The bride makes ready ~










Is he winning?


Looks like a tie!

[bixaorellana]

First some regular dancing ~


Then the vibora -- the unmarried women and men dance under the veil ~












Time for the men to cavort under the veil. Note that the bride & groom are holding on tightly this time ~

[bixaorellana]

As all parties survived the vibora, the bride will now toss her bouquet ~

~ ~ to be continued ~ ~

[lugg]

Fabulous photos Bixa , they really capture the enjoyment of the couple and their guests.

[mossie]

And a good time was had by all.
Looks like a great party

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, Lugg & Mossie!

Let me wrap this thing up. You'll see the photos get progressively worse, as the backlighting & rapidly gathering dusk worked against me.

There were some fun rituals that involved spoofing traditional man/woman roles. The groom always gets carried and tossed at weddings, but I don't remember seeing this "little woman following after" part before. The bride has her head covered with a shawl & is escorted by the madrinas -- "godmothers".






The faithful wife carries the shoes & socks the men have pulled off the groom ~


And now for some role reversal. We were told this is what goes on in private in the couple's home. The groom had to put on a pinafore, then carry a shopping basket and his child as he swept. The wife walked behind, whipping him on with his own belt ~


                     





Later, the groom threw his tie out to the assembled men. The lucky catcher got a very nice bottle of booze!


After that, women danced with baskets of treats on their heads, which they threw out to the crowd, but the pictures are too dark to show. We left before the cake was cut. There is band equipment behind the cake table, for the dancing that was to follow.

[mossie]

Cake That is a feast to feed the whole town.
This has been a real celebration, everyone really enjoyed themselves.

[Deleted]

What a fun loving bunch of people!! Great pics Bixa!!

[tod2]

Thank you Bixa for showing us the wedding photos of this jolly family! They looked as if this was truly a joyful time.

[htmb]

The cake WAS impressive! Nice pictures, bixa!

[Deleted]

I am impervious to traditions requiring people to take food out of each other's mouth (or shove it in each other's mouth like horrible wedding cake photos) or any kind of line dancing, but as long as the participants enjoy it, I will defend their right to do it.

I don't think I've ever heard of putting off a church wedding (if desired) in France. Couples who want to do both walk straight from city hall to the church. I'm sure if they had no money to pay the priest, he would do it anyway, and then after any kind of wedding there is a party for all based on the financial possibilities of the couple and their families. I doubt if it would interest many people to go to a 'fake' wedding years later, so I am truly intrigued by this tradition. Is the most important aspect to make an expensive splash?

[mich64]

Very interesting to see a marriage in a different culture, so many different traditions. The veil dance looks fun. One of the traditions in Canada is that if a younger brother marries before his elder brother, he is sent out on the empty dance floor in a pair of vibrant socks to dance for all the guests at some point during the reception.

It is also becoming common here for couples to travel somewhere for a destination wedding and when they return they have a wedding reception.

Nice photos Bixa!

[bixaorellana]

Thanks for all the great comments and big apologies for taking so long to reply.
I posted the last part of this thread in the wee hours of the morning I left on vacation (Committed Bixa ).
Great vacation but bad internet connection.

I'm truly glad you all enjoyed it & hope that one day a piss-up will be possible so that you can experience some of this stuff first hand.

The church weddings seem to always be the trigger for the big celebration. In Oaxaca, the tradition of "tequio" is still very strong. This is a custom of people in a community working together on a volunteer basis for something that benefits the community. For instance, in my colonia, everyone chipped in & also physically worked to replace the speed bumps removed when the nearby highway was resurfaced. In rural communities, this culture of sharing is extended to activities such as that of barn raisings or quilting bees in the US or Canada, but also in everyone being expected to help out for big parties. A woman once told me that 500 people attended her wedding -- the whole town. In her case, her father was a big shot in the village. But those attending, many of whom would have contributed toward the festivities, would one day have their turn to put on a big wedding reception or such & would be able to expect the same kind of help. The custom of madrinas and padrinos -- godmothers and godfathers -- is ingrained. You would have "godparents" for the wedding cake or for the music, for instance. The woman with whom I went to this wedding had contributed a couple of cases of pop. It's really not at all about showing off, but about putting on and sharing the best party possible.

Mich, that is a really intriguing custom with the socks. Is that exclusive to a certain part of Canada or common to the whole country? Any idea of the meaning behind it?

In my haste, I never got around to youtubing a video of the wedding taco dance, so here they are now:

[mich64]

I will have to guess on the origins of the socks, I believe the intent was to embarrass the older brother for not marrying before a younger brother. The parents of the groom bring out the socks in a grand way for all the guests to know he is the older brother.

I could be mistaken, but from all the weddings I have been to, it seems to be a French Canadian tradition, so I think you would be more likely to see it at weddings in Eastern Canada and probably not so much in the West.

[Don Cuevas]

I missed this interesting topic until now, but I'm glad I saw it. We have been busy attending misas and comidas left and right. I have fully satisfied the requirements for my Mole Eater's Merit Badge. tinyurl.com/MagicalMysteryMoleTour

We also attended a huge wedding on Saturday, just a few miles down the road from our village. The couple is very adapted to the United States lives in the U.S., but came home for the wedding. Photos here: tinyurl.com/BodaCorrales It was a wonderful event, and we spent half of the following day recovering. (we didn't even stay past 6:30 p.m.)

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, Mich. The tradition remains fascinating yet mysterious. The embarrassment makes sense, but I wonder how they fixed on socks.

And thank you, DonC ~~ most interesting to see so many similarities between our two different states.