Tunisian Wedding traditions

[Kris]

I understand that traditions vary from place to place my favourite Tunisian tradition so far is from Bizerte and it is when the Bride to be has to walk around the house with a fish tied round her leg brilliant. Does anyone else have a bizzare tradtion such as this?

[Mak]

Hi there,

As you mentioned there's a lot of differents tranditions with weddings ... but most of them there are the same ... but what really i like in the weddings is the few days before the big party... when the groom has to walk with his familly members in the front ( only men) and with his friends and relatives and they have to walk all of them to the house of the Bride to ask for her hand ... and then you see a crowd of people walking together talking having nice chats and when they come to the door of the Brid's house ... one man ( mostly the father of the groom of his brother ... ) knock the door of the house 3 times ... and then you hear a man voice asking : Who's knocking .. and then he answers : We are .... caming to ask the hand of your Daughter .... for our son ..... and then the guy from the Bride's house ( mostly her father or big brother if the father dead ) he open the door and he says : Please be welcome in our home ...

In fact it's a role-playing because the bride's family there know that in that date at that time all this will happen ... but what really matter is the social / human aspect of this role-playing ...
First of all when you see the crowd of people that shows a social solidarity which i believe every society needs it ... Second the idea of all this is the "publicity" because when man sees a crowd of people walking together .. he would ask , what's going on ... and then the answer is that .. the daguthter of .... is getting married to the son of .... so people are going to know it so the bride will be treated in the future as a "token" woman ... so no man in the future will try a chance with her ... which is good i think ...
Third : the fact that the groom comes walking from a certain place to another place (Bride's house) with the most closed people to him ( family, relatives, friends ) show's how much the bride means for him .. i believe that something like in Europe the act when the man goes on his knee for the Bride ... or when the father of the bride gives away his daughter in the church to her groom ...

I do believe that in spite of everything the goals of every culture are the same ..

of course i can tell you more about he weddings in Tunisia .. but trust me that will take me a year

Cheers
Mak

[Kris]

Should be funny for me and Hajer in September with my crowd of Englishmen hope nobody thinks its an invasion.

[Mak]

if i may ask .... Hajer is an arabic name for a woman ... is she your wife ? or am i wrong ?

Makrem

[Kris]

Hajer is my Fiancee and the editor of Tunisia.com we are getting married in September.

Regards,

Kris "Aka" Aziz

[Makrem]

Hi Kris,

It's good ... i wish both of you health , wealth and happy life

Rgds
Makrem

[jukcoder]

Eid Mubarek to all and a prosperous new year

Keep smiling

Faisal Abdallah ,Gafsa

[Kris]

And to you and you family also

[pritchardjd]

Hi Kris.... My wife and I have visited Tunisia many times on holiday.... We Have now been invited to Our Tunisian friends Wedding in March..... My Wife is panicing as she is not sure as to what is appropriate to wear can you advise on this.....thanks ....john

[deltree]

Hi there my name is Chris and is planning to get married to a Tunisian woman from the town of el kef and have come across the tradition of brides price or mahr or dowry and there so many figures of price from a symbolic nothing to fortunes as anyone got a modern view on this, I found one quote from a site an American in Tunis dated 2005. And on the one of the days, the groom comes to her family’s house to sign the wedding contract and pay the bride price (a symbolic token of 20 dinar... about 10 Euro... these days).and someone else’s comments. In the modern Tunisian society, these huge mahrs are very unfashionable now since they were contributing to making the marriage harder to take place; moreover showing off is religiously not acceptable.

Practically, modern Tunisian women are financially independent anyway and they don't need such guarantees anymore, therefore mahr is now a mere symbolic sum paid to maintain compliance with a long Islamic Tradition no more. I had to pay 1 TND to my wife when we signed the marriage contract , I know some regions where the value of mahr is still the same since several centuries: 0.068 TND (5 cents), Does anyone no any different, or what the feelings is about this or anyone from a small town like el kef as I want to do the right thing and don’t want to offend anyone ??