So I went to my first Coptic Orthodox wedding on the weekend. It was an experience I’ll never forget, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to go. A very talented teacher from my school was getting married and they were having the whole Coptic ceremony. It was held at St George’s in Kensington, and the ceremony was the first thing that really surprised me. It was kind of a combination between Evanovich’s description of New Jersey wives – think lots of leopard print and flashy jewelry – and a kind of church from 40 years ago. The altar was covered up, and everything was done in a mix of Arabic and English. The people there had what I found was a strange approach to church, too – unlike the starched stuffiness and formality that you often see in High CofE or Catholic churches, in this case, there was a relaxed informality about the whole affair – if their phone rang during the service, it was fine to go out and answer it. Kids roamed around, pretty freely – but they were pretty well behaved anyway. And no singing – except for the priests, who droned on and on in a nasally kind of quaver, and the women of the congregation, who would, at moments I couldn’t quite predict, would let fly with a blood-curdling ululation. There were crowns too – as part of the ceremony, both the groom and the bride needed to be crowned. I missed the significance of that.
If I thought the ceremony was different, I wasn’t prepared for the wedding. I’ve been to a few weddings before – from the simply registry office and then a curry in the pub to the very strict, no drinking or dancing, Anglican fundamentalist ones, but none of them prepared me for this – it was, by any stroke of the imagination, immense. We were there at 4pm, but no one really arrived until 6pm. That was fine – there were chocolate covered strawberries, and ice sculptures in the shape of the Bundy Bear, and then, as we sat down, a proper Middle Eastern feast complete with Kibbe – or, if you’re not sure what it is – raw minced meat.
And then the dancing began. After the bridal party arrived, complete with dancing entries and fireworks, everybody – and I mean everybody – got on the dance floor and danced like crazy men and woman. It was a joyous celebration of life, of music, and, in keeping in mind the nature of the event, love. After that, there was food, drinking, speeches, videos, gifts, circus performers- yes, really, circus performers, and lots more dancing. It was past 11 when we left – considering we’d been at the wedding for more than 7 hours at that stage, and it didn’t look like there was any intention of stopping soon.
Weddings – Coptic style!