Always a Gentile, never a Sephardic Bride...

Part 1 : A night to remember...

This weekend was one of the most beautiful, and exciting to date as I was able to experience first hand what it's like to partake in a Sephardic wedding ceremony.

Just some background for those of you that do not know what the heck I am talking about (Sandra you can skip this part obviously...) Basically what I have learned (please correct me if I screw up) is that the Judaism can be divided into two different cultural branches: Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Most of the Jewish people you and I know are Ashkenazim, meaning that they are descendants of European Jews. Sephardim, on the other hand are also Jewish but their roots are in the North of Africa, Iraq (Babylon), Syria, Greece, Turkey Spain and Portugal.

So, as some of you already know, I went to see my friend Esther marry her longtime argentine- boyfriend in Malaga, Spain yesterday. She is originally from a Spanish colony located in the north of Africa. She is Jewish as is her boyfriend, but while his family emigrated from Poland in the 30's to Argentina making him Ashkenazi, her family is of Sephardic heritage.

Well, first off, the wedding celebrations actually started off on Thursday with a ceremony called Noche BERBERISCA. It is a Sephardic ceremony where the bride wears a traditional costume (heavy moorish influence – lots of gold detailing and she wears a gold crown and sits on a gold throne while people paint her hands with henna to symbolize fertility) . Unforunately I missed it but I saw pictures and it looked amazing….

The open-air wedding ceremony was on Sunday on an amazing hilltop overlooking the sea. There was tons of chanting (mainly the rabbi) and singing going on during the ceremony in what I think was yiddish and some arabic as well?) Luckily there was someone narrating each step of the ceremony because it was quite long and with all of the chanting in other languages you couldn’t really follow too well…. At one point it seemed as if every male relative went up to the chuppah at some point to help the rabbi chant as well - needless to say I was fascinated! The best part was when the women (all seated on the left- men were to the right) began to make these crazy arab whooping noises, it sounded like an Indian war cry - they would do this throughout the night it definitely got everyone all riled up!


Part 2: Argentine Jews are extremely rowdy and of course ridiculously charming, amazing dancers

I was happy to aid some clueless gentile guests as to the intricate steps of the hava nagila , but the highlight had to be watching the rowdy Argentine/Venezuelan boys hoist up the bride and groom on whatever furniture was handy at the moment.
First they were lifted on chairs and thrown around with an almost frightening force, I definitely thought little Esther would go flying at one point and land on the top ofthe cake. Then they made them stand on a tabletop and dance and sing to this crazy song that I only wish I knew the words to because everyone around me was having a blast singing it- the table scene was also scary because they were SO HIGH UP and on this flimsy piece of wood! I still can' t believe they didn’t fall… newlywed Jewish couples are risk takers!! The boys kept linking hands and spinning themselves around with WAY too much energy though as the night the wore on, impending disaster was in the air and it actually reared its ugly head when the boys decided to all jump up on one of the catering tables (thank God/Jehovah it was empty!)
These South American Jewish boys are quite jumpy, after climbing on the table it came crashing down in the middle of their dance and they all fell in a heap including a friend of the groom who appeared to be physically disabled (prior to the accident of course). I though they had definitely killed him! Luckily he was more resilient than he looked and got back on his feet rather quickly. So everyone moved into the dance area where the salsa band was playing and the Argentine/Venezuelans proceeded to dance everyone under the table. They even danced everyone under the table while dancing ON the tables! Then they started throwing afro wigs and crazy feather masks and noisemakers into the crowd- it was suddenly a New Years party and there was not a man in the place without an afro wig on!
I ended up dancing the rest of the night with a lovely jewish boy aptly named after the just hebrew King Salomon, he would have been shorter than me had it not been for the enormous wig so everything seemed to work out well while we danced- he was a tiny jewish fred astaire, amazing dancer! And as we discussed the wonders of the blending of Judaic cultures all under one big chuppah- I really felt for just one fleeting moment like a member of the tribe….