Sunday, April 21, 2013

Qatari Weddings – Lighting the House



Around Qatar you will occasionally see a house with strings of lights on it.




This is part of the wedding celebrations, the lights are used to signify that someone in the house has or will be getting married. According to a Qatari friend of mine, the lights are typically put up a few days before the wedding and stay up for a few days afterward (I think some families keep them up longer, I'm sure I've seen houses where those lights are there for a couple of weeks).

And just to clarify, the lights are put up around the time of the wedding parties, not at the time the marriage contract is signed. They are two separate events: the couple signs a marriage contract (at which point they are legally married) but cannot live together until they have had the parties (one for men, and one for ladies). The parties can occur well after the contract is signed, in some cases over a year later.


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