Weddings in Algiers

No matter how much I said about Algeria, I couldn't possibly give it all the credit it deserved. It is a country with a huge number of diverse customs and social habits (ah and superstitions, too). In this entry, I’ll be talking about how weddings are organised in Algiers, specifically. Even so, within Algiers, there is more than one way of holding wedding parties. Therefore, and to be fair, I’ll, exclusively, describe how things are done in the part of Algiers I come from, . 

Nowadays, Although  most marriages are conducted according to the Islamic constitution (I say “most” because there is a number of Christian and Jewish Algerians -oh pagans as well- whose wedding parties are done slightly differently), the tribal traditions play a significant role, too, in terms of influencing the steps as to how parties are held. Many elderly and parents value these traditions more than the Islamic principles. Most of the youngsters, with the introduction of many TV channels and constant exposure to the western cultures, have now began to break the "rules" and innovate in new fashions. 

For a better understanding of the origins of these various traditions, it’s necessary to have a general insight on the social composition of the Berber/Amazigh communities. 

About the Berber / Imazighen Tribes: 

[...The Berbers are a bunch of tribes. Some of the biggest and most prominent ones in Algeria are:

Ishawiyen (Chaoui)  mainly located in Eastern Algeria (ex: Setif, Oum ELbouagui, Constantine, Batna, Khenshla..etc. Their first language is Tamazight (although most Berbers are Bilingual, if not trilingual, many of them speak a mixed Algerian dialect and French according to their education level.). Their traditions are distinct and noticeable. some of these traditional aspects are: 
Their eating habits: most families have the tendency to gather around a very low table and sit on a carpet or hidora   (sheep's skin). They share, usually, spicy food put in  a big gasea, accompanied with matloa ( homemade bread)

Their community activitie: such as, Thiwizi, which involve women getting together to pick and collect produce and medical plants, store drinking water, look after their kettles, chicken, quails and rabbits (they like eating rabbits :P). They also get together to work the sheep's and goats wool, and make yarn skein for capert making, knitting and crocheting purposes. young girls are taught from a very young age to take part in these activities. I lived amongst them for some time and learnt a lot from them. Most Men, on the other hand, are farmers. They grow produce and wheat and do all the work to bring it home for the ladies to store and make nice hot meals during the cold snowy winter. 

Their celebrations:  Yennayer (The Amazigh new year) start on 12th of January. Many traditional dishes are cooked for dinner along with sweets to welcome the new year. Braaj is made to welcome spring, while Rfiss is made to bid farewell to spring and welcome summer. Berkoukess is made to welcome winter. The Chaoui are big fans of el Hammem. They love taking baths straight from the natural hot resources.
clothes , tattoos, and facial features are other distinctive tribal customs
See an example of the Chaoui dress , Fergani 

Iturgiyen (Touareg) aka the blue men reside in the Sahara. They are the very conservative people of the desert, dark skinned and always wrapped from head to toe in beautiful (usually blue) clothes. Tamazight is their first and sometimes the only language. It is taught in their school since a very young age. the common tendency is that handsome men have to cover up they faces, while ladies don't have to do that. They greet each other by shaking hands in a paculiar way. They are known for their great sense of generosity and hospitality. 
Click here to see some: Touareg women. 

Kabyles (or as they formarly called themselves Azouwaw) in Central Eastern Algeria (ex: Blida, Tizi ouzou, Bejaia) . Their traditions and traditional wear is very remarkable. They, perform similar activities and celebrate more or less the same event as the Chaoui people. 
Click to see the typical kabyle dress , Kabyle jewellery , a set. dress 

M'zab in the valleys in Sounthern Algeria (their capital city is Ghardaia). they usually marry from within their community and rarely mix with other tribes, their features are quite distinguishable. They are extremely conservative, too. They speak a dialiect of Tamazight. ONly those who travelled and pursued their studies further speak the Algerian mixed dialect or French. They are very polite people with a great sense of humour, and most of men are tradesmen. They make a living through retails and it works very well for them. 

Click here and here to see a typical dress.  

Tlemcen Tribes in Western Algeria, are well noticeable by their clothes first, then traditions. Click here to see their typical dress. 

Ishenwiyen in central Algeria

Zenatas in Western Central Algeria.



SO, How are weddings generally celebrated in Algiers?: 

There are more tribes but i'm still in the process of discovering more about them.. much more to find out... *excited*]

Traditions and customs differ from tribe to tribe. They are also influenced by the location of the tribe i.e. the city or the suburbs, the mountains, hills or plains, north, south, east or west. 

The lifestyle differs, too, according to the previously mentioned factors and according to the climate. 

Where I come from (Algiers), not all people celebrate weddings the same way, but I'm going to give a general idea on how the majority do things. 

The invite: 
A significant number of Algerians have adopted the invitation card system as a new way to send their invitations to their dear ones. Card designers have found their joy innovating and selling these cards. Having said that, this trend is new and people have yet to fully grasp the concept and get used to it. Most hosts still fall into the same dilemma.. they get more than what they asked for. When you invite a 100 people, expect to get 150. the guests have the tendency to bring along their uninvited relatives and distant cousins.. even their FRIENDS or close CLASSMATES!!!! They hosts biggest challenge is to keep everyone happy, but it gets extremely tricky andstressful when they end up having way too many uninvited guests (who usually come bare handed... yes, no gifts)  and run out of sweet boxes to offer. (duh!) 

The "Cortege" 

As the bride leaves her parents' house to start her new marital life, the husband usually goes to take her with his family in many cars. The car in which the bride sits is usually be decorated with flowers, ribbons and roses inside out (see example). One of the cars carries a cameraman and another car has people playing music out loud (usually Zarna), but it's not always the case, it's different from region to region. As the husband and his family drive on their way to pick up the bride from her parent's house, they honk non-stop throughout the drive. When they get to the bride's house, they fire their guns towards the sky to announce their presence and the marriage of the couple. (picture) 

The dresses:

Fergani - Chaoui dress

Yes, I did say dresses in the plural. That’s because the tradition in many regions requires that the bride wore more than one dress on her wedding day. Unlike many other countries where the bride wears one dress (usually the white one) the Algerian lady (well not all) gets to show off many dresses during her big day. some might see it as an unnecessary waste of money and effort, others might consider it pricey, but well these are the traditions in many regions.

 In the capital and many other regions the bride is expected to wear at least 3 different dresses. These dresses are originally traditionally worn in other regions and cities within Algeria. One of the dresses represents the bride's region. Another dress is to honour her husband’s tribe (if he isn’t from the same region as her) and the rest of the dresses represent a few other regions the bride gets to choose them according to her preferences. This is to show tolerance and the lack of racism/regionalism towards the other tribes. 

 Where I come from, the bride enters the wedding hall wearing a formal outfit and is covered with a cape. This cape is of an off-white colour and has a big hood that falls over her head and covers her face. (see Burnous) 

She is given a cup of warm white milk to take a sip from as she enters the hall. Then, she gets walked by a female member of her family (or the family in law) holding her hand and leading her to sit on a decorated fancy  chair. The escort lady, then, lifts the hood to uncover the bride’s face and hair. 

During that time the other ladies and guests greet the bride, congratulate her and perform their Yooyooes

Chaoui dress 

Some ladies and young girls start dancing and singing to celebrate the bride's big dag. 

After a few minutes (15 to 30 minutes) the bride gets walked out of the hall to go change her clothes and come back with another dress, shoes and jewellery. This is repeated according to the number of dresses she chose to wear on her big day.

Finally, the new trend is to finish the “defile” with the white dress originally a israelite/Jewish tradition, but I chose not to wear it. Instead, I went for a turquoise coloured one. 

During the bride’s parade, the guests get the chance to dance, sing, clap, (gossip :P) and have some coffee and cake before they leave with boxes of sweets offered by the hosts. 
PS: It's also the golden opportunity for the the Elderly and middle-aged women to hunt single young women for their sons and grandsons to get hitched with. 

The gifts

 The invited people hamd the bride’s gifts to her mother as soon as they enter the hall/house, before the party begins or during for the latecomers. The gifts remain wrapped and are generally placed in a stash and opened when everyone has left. Others prefer to give money. (a symbolic amount) 

don't be too shocked if you get lots of
these coffee sets, guys lol

The bride usually receives many gifts before, during and after her big day. The husband is the one who gives the most. Usually, he sends a big suitcase full of lingerie, bathrobes, makeup, body lotions, accessories and evening dresses/gowns.

The suitcase is opened by an elderly relative and the content is shown to the guests, the family and the bride. Everybody congratulates the bride and performs their Yooyooes.

The typical gifts offered by the relatives and guests are tea/coffe or juice sets. Some offer kitchen house-wares while others give things like: frames, decorative items for the house, clothes, makeup, lamps..etc

I have to say that as far as "selecting gifts" is concerned, creativity and originality haven’t found room to be introduced yet.

The jewellery

The Kabyles jewellery 

Most Berber tribes tend to value and wear silver jewellery more than gold. Silver is quite expensive in their regions and patterns are very similar from one place to another. However, there are many other regions where gold is notably worthy. Its colour is bright yellow unlike the Asian gold which is dark yellow or orange-ish (the latter is normally better.) 

In many regions the bride is given gold or silver jewellery in form of parures by the husband-to-be and his family. She adds that to her own collection of jewellery that she’d been saving for a few years. The bride can wear her jewellery sets on her wedding day as she changes dresses.

The place

Wedding parties are held either in big rented wedding halls decorated specifically for that purpose, or at home (indoors, in the courtyard or the garden). 

My cousin's choice of the wedding's place

While many like to have their big day take place in the big fancy halls with Dj’s or musical groups/bands, I chose to have mine at home with the presence of my closest members of the family. 

Unlike most weddings that last for a day only, mine lasted for two. That was because the house wasn't spacious enough to fit everybody in. So, one day was for my paternal family and the other was for my maternal one. There was actually a third day for neighbours and friends, but it was more like an afternoon coffee kind of thing. 

PS: during this time, some young men keep an open eye for a potential wife they get to hunt from the single young ladies in the crowd. The decent among the gents will talk to his mum about the "potential wife". the Mother's investigation, then, begins. 

The photographs

The bride's family hires a photographer/camera-person to take pictures and videos of the bride, mainly, with her different dresses. Pictures also include the bride with her family, relatives, husband and the family-in-law. The photographs are, then, printed and put into a wedding album. 

Where is the husband in all this? Yes, yes, I know. Well he stays with the men. In most weddings around where I come from, women and men don't mix and mingle very much. They sit in separate rooms/halls and celebrate until the last few minutes, the husband joins the bride and sits next to her to give her the wedding ring. (that's when the mixing ad mingling take place)

The groom: 

Traditionally, Husbands-to-be wear very baggy trousers called (serwal loubia) -bean trousers- babouche, a shirt, a waistcoat and a tarbouche (a red hat), Oh and of course a cape!. This is just in a some regions, as attire differs from tribe to another.
Nowadays, Men prefer to wear a suit of any colour, with a bow tie or a normal one. Many men add a cape (either off-white or brown colour) on top of the suit. Barnous, Kechabiya

The cake, 

Sweets boxes and dragees 

My cousin's wedding cake

Not all people have big cakes in their wedding parties. This is more of a new trend. People who do things the traditional way usually make many kinds of sweets, put them in boxes or baskets and offer them to the invited guests and family relatives. 

Dragees basket to offer to the
guests. 

 My boxes of sweets 

The dragée (sugar coated almonds) are essential and an important part of the offered box/basket. I chose not to have the fancy cake in my wedding party, instead I handed out the sweet filled boxes and dragée to the guests.

Again, this is not how all weddings are organised in Algeria. It is a big country with many tribes and traditions and customs that differ. Instead, this was just to have a small and general idea about how weddings are held in the city I'm from. 

Cheers xx