With Ramadan approaching, as well as the heat of the summer, everyone is busy getting their weddings out of the way. Someone can correct me but I think no one has a wedding during the Holy Month, at least I've never gone to one then, so people planning on getting married are trying to get it done before the wedding season comes to an end. Last week I went to two weddings and there might be another one next week that I'll go to.
Thankfully for us foreigners the Qataris keep men's weddings surprisingly consistent. You'll go to a tent/hall, you'll go give your congrats to the groom and the groom's father, hang out for a while, maybe watch the singers and sword dancing, then have dinner if you stick around for it (lamb or goat on rice). Every wedding has been like this -- Qataris don't do theme weddings or exotic weddings. Tradition governs everything for the occasion. The only real differences I've seen are whether there are singers (some weddings don't have them) and whether for dinner you'll be seated at tables or sitting on the floor (50/50 chance of one or the other). You don't bring any gifts, and there'll be plenty of waiters walking around with juice, tea, coffee, appetizers, sweets and halwa for guests to snack on before dinner.
My favourite is when they have sword dancing, which is a lovely tradition. The moves aren't difficult, primarily holding a sword up while walking forward in time to the music. I've done it a couple of times myself but only if friends pull me in to do it with them, I'd feel weird just grabbing a sword and joining on my own. It's nice when children run up to do it, they look so cute in their thobes walking around with swords.
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