The Ait Khabbash Berber Wedding

During Berber Ait Khabbash Weddings people get to enjoy the good food and the music. They get to sing or play instruments and at the same time meet friends or family members that they haven't seen in a long time. But the main purpose of the wedding is to celebrate a new chapter of the couple's life and hope for a happy marriage to a couple. During this celebration the groom gives presents to his new wife just like in most wedding ceremonies.

Before we get to the fun part there is work that is needed to be done before the ceremony. For example the women must cook the food for a lot of people. Food such as couscous, and tagine and the bread that must go with the tagine. To make all that delicious food the women need wheat to flour make flour. The process may take several days. Even though with all the work to do, the women like to prepare for weddings because the women get to see friends and family members they haven't seen in a long time. While the women work, they socialize and sing with each other and even have new friends from the bride's or groom's family. The only job that men participate in preparation to the wedding is to put up the tent. The groom choses 3 men from his family to put up the tent where the celebration will take place. It's mostly the women who prepare the wedding.

In the Ait Khabbash culture it's mandatory for the groom to buy presents for the bride. The groom buys tea, henna, jewelry, and clothes. During the ceremony the bride may wear some pieces of jewelry given to her. The groom also must buy the new clothes because the bride will throw away all her clothes and will wear the new clothes once she is married to show that she is married. In Ait Khabbash traditions the groom must buy a bed and closet for their room together. If the couple was ever to be divorced, the bride must give back all the grifts.

During the Ait Khabbash weddings food is of course served. The food served is much like the Moroccan food. Couscous and different tagines are served. Bread as usually is served with the tagines. For those who do not know what is couscous and tagine is, tagine is sort of like a stew. Couscous is under the rice and pasta category. Couscous is served with meet and vegetables like carrot, squash, pumpkin, chickpeas, and sometimes with potatoes and cabbage. The women always cook more than enough food for everyone to eat.

After everyone has finished eating it's time for the music. The only instrument that I know the Ait Khabbash use is the allum which is a framed drum. Besides the drum the music is made by singing and tapping the tea cup or a table if it nearby. The music is mostly played by women since there are as many as 4x more women than men. The music makes a nice atmosphere for the wedding.

The bride is practically a new person once she is married. During the wedding the tammacat brushes and braids her hair. Tammacat means "woman who brushes". For someone to be a tammacat they must be married and have never divorced. The tammacat must also have grown children. The bride must wear a white gown called aruy. The white represents the purity and blessings. Even though not many Ait Khabbash brides don't wear a red cloth with yellow horizontal and diagonal lines it is used so that there are no stains on the bride's dress. Also the bride must wear a wool belt made by her mother. the belt shows that one day the bride will become a mother. These wedding traditions have been pass down to each Ait Khabbash bride.

Why should we preserve Berber weddings? We should preserve Berber weddings because the Berbers have followed the same traditions have been passed down from their parents to them and why should we force them to change their traditions to be like ours? If I put myself in their position I wouldn't want anyone to change my culture that my ancestors have followed. I'm sure you wouldn't want anyone else to force you to change your culture to be like theirs. How would you feel if the traditions that your ancestors followed were gone?

I explained the traditions of the Ait Khabbash Berbers' weddings. For example the gifts given to the bride, what the bride wear, how to fix the bride's, the food, where it takes place, and the music. These are different for each different types of Berbers. I explained the traditions of the Ait Khabbash Berbers' weddings. The Berber weddings have many tasks and traditions that have been followed for many generations.