The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-05-04
A FILIPINO WEDDING.
Interesting Description by an Amer.
lean Soldier Boy.
The Ceremony Begins at Early Dawn
and Continues Until Late
at Night.

An American soldier in the Philip.
pines, writing to relative in ColumbiP,
gives the following interesting descrip-
ton of a Filipino wedding.
Il must tell you of marriage cero-
mony | attended. You must know that
marriages, or j should say weddings,
are not such simple and brief affairs
with these people as with Us. The one
| attended took place at San Jacnto,
and | dropped in on my way back from
Dagupan, to break the monotomy of the
long ride.
"The ceremony begins at early dawn
and continues throughout the day until
late at night; so /, of course, only saw
part of this one, but have witnessed
others. The ceremonies begin when the
native orchestra goes to the BRIDES home
and escorts her to the church, with gay
tunes At the church they meet the
groom and his outfit, and the usual
Catholic wedding mony takes place,
after which the whole party, again
headed by the band, march with solemn
abandon to the Presidential mayors of
| fice) and register their names as man
and wife Then the whole procession
moves off to the house of the brides
parents, which is as deliberately decora-
ted as the means of the family will al
| low. Here both of the families and all
their friends dance and feast off rice and
native fruits and drink "vino" Ia native
alcoholic beverage made from rice) until
about four O'Clock IN the afternoon.
"lhen the procession moves off to.
ward the groom's home. AS it APP
proaches, the mother of the groom and
his grandmother, aunts. sisters, cousins,
etc. get out in the middle of the road
and dance a wild sort of fandango; and
when the poor little bride gets within
reach they begin to embrace her, and to
. elcome her to her ew home. Again
the music starts to playing inside the
house, and weird dance begins. The
father and mother of the bride take the
| floor and attempt to execute few
fancy steps, dropping small pieces of
money on the floor and grabbing them
up. all the time laughing, chattering
and singing THAT is, you could call it
singing, if you didn't care what you
said. Then the old man is seen to put
piece of money b tween his lips and
the old lady waltzes up and takes it
from him with her mouth; then Uice
Uersd.
"All this is supposed to be for the in
struction of the newly married couple,
who can only receive their presents this
way, as we'll as for the amusement of
the guests. Accordingly, the neophytes
themselves next take the floor and the
guests begin to give their presents by
putting the pieces of money in the
mouth of one, and the other waltzes up
and extracts it in ar osculatory manner.
THE oder people are wild with mer-
riment at the evidences of timidity on
the part of the bride or the bashfuness
of the groom. The bride, who is gene :
ally between twelve and sixteen, scarcely
knows her husband, since he must dc
his counting through the mater, so you
can imagine what shock of her maiden
sensi'iveness this performance must be.
| felt like pitching the whole crowd OF
them out of the window-but thought
better when | saw twelve-year old
bride of only the past weeks vintage
enjoying the discontinue If her erst
while companion as much as anyone
else,"