"Dead People" and A Wedding Morning

     First, I will explain the beginning of this post's title. We went to the village Taban last night with our host family. Rodica's mother lives there and her brothers (one living in Briceni and one in Chişinau) both came for a masă or meal. Before the meal, we all went to the cemetery to see the grave of Rodica's father. His headstone stood nicely next to Rodica's grandparents' headstones. As the family experienced a somber moment, Arcadie (our host dad) decided to practice some of his English. He began saying in English, "Dead people...dead people....cemetery....dead people." Shelbi and I busted up laughing. The family didn't mind. They all laughed, too, even though they didn't understand his English. We later tried to explain the delicate reverence for the dead we try to maintain in America. I don't know if our message was lost on him or not, but we are glad for his efforts with English. He is actually quite good although he only studied a little at university.

     So, the reason Rodica's family was in town was because her youngest brother who lives in Chişinau will participate as naş (a kind of "god-father") in his friend's wedding. The morning after this meal and the cemetery with, yes, "dead people," we came back to the village and got to experience some of the beginnings of a Moldovan wedding. Because the rest of the wedding would be in another city, and we didn't exactly know the bride and groom, Shelbi and I decided to only go to the morning's events. If we had participated in everything, we would be occupied until 4 or 5 a.m. the next morning. So, here are some pictures/videos and explanations to give you an idea of the experience.

The family and friends of the naş and naşa (like god-parents for bride and groom's future children) greet the groom outside the house with a ceremony of music, wine, and other welcoming gestures on the morning of his wedding.

They then proceed into the house and everyone has a masă (or meal) while the band plays. By-the-way, the boy on the right in this picture is one of John's English students and our host family's nephew.

This is the most popular traditional Moldovan dance: the hora.

    The Moldovan custom is to take the groom and travel (walk or otherwise) around "searching" for a/his bride. Sometimes it becomes a joke to take the groom to some baba (old woman) and try to pawn her off as the young bride. Our group walked around the block yelling with high-pitched festive screams and found the bride at her parents' house-no joke. When the groom arrived at the house, however, the siblings of the bride forbade him to enter or see the bride until he had bartered for her. This usually comes to a symbolic amount around $100 U.S. (in Moldovan lei, of course). The parties joke and smile as they barter. Unfortunately, we didn't understand all the hints and subtleties, but the groom was eventually allowed in to see his bride and all the people made rounds to take pictures with the couple. After this, the party swept us outside into a hora circle and John embarrassed himself while Shelbi learned the steps.
Maybe some of this information doesn't represent all Moldovans. That's okay. This is how it was explained to us.