It's Covid season, all right. Lockdowns are going up all around the world. Social distancing is enforced by the police, bars and clubs are closed, and wearing face masks is becoming obligatory... in many countries. Meanwhile, here in Mexico, the approach taken is a much more lenient one. In fact, if it weren't for the official definition to the contrary, you could easily think we're in Sweden.
The risk of contagiation is officially color coded in traffic lights: green, yellow, and red, though they also included the additional color of orange. This is kinda like how certain parents count to three when they don't manage to assert themselves to their unruly offspring: one, two, two-and-a-half, two-three-quarters, etc. As the Covid cases have exploded lately, the government added a big exclamation mark to the orange color, but for economic reasons it's reluctant to implement the full lockdown by turning red.
White Wedding in Dark Orange
It was during this time of "almost lockdown" that my wife's good friend Arlen had her Big Fat Mexican Wedding. The two have been BFFs going back to before their university days. Seeing all their other friends getting married one by one, they have been the two single girls who would remain singles forever, and enjoy sharing it! It all went perfectly well until I showed up on the scene, changing the entire setup. Since then Arlen has been planing on her own white wedding. Finally, it was going to happen this year... until it wasn't.
At first the wedding was scheduled for April, but it had to be cancelled due to the Covid lockdown. It seemed bad enough having to postpone it for July, but since the pandemic was likely to stretch into overtime, the prudent decision was to wait until November. Finally, it almost looked like another postponement was in order, but since the orange exclamation mark didn't explicitly forbid larger gatherings, the decision was to have the wedding. And all of us were invited, including my wife's family, as well as 200 other guests.
Limited Social Distancing, and Optional Safety Measures
To hold up appearances, the event was organized at an outdoor venue, with certain safety measures. For example, all staff wore face masks at all times, there was plenty of hand sanitizer set up at little stations, and in the restroom every other urinal was closed off with tape. Also, each group of guests had their own table and benches under shady awnings, separate from others. So when we arrived, we felt safe in our little family circle, and took off our masks while sipping on the refreshments.
Once the wedding couple showed up, however, the safety measures slowly started to go out of the window. The seating area for witnessing the ceremony was set up in a way that made social distancing impossible. After the ceremony we all lined up to congratulate the newlyweds, with the obligatory two meters between us. Then however, one-by-one everyone got to hug the groom, kiss the bride, shake hands with the groom, hug the bride, and then get really close together to have pictures taken. What a field day for a virus! I'm not sure how much that bit of hand sanitizer helped afterwards.
Exceptions and More Exceptions
After the ceremony, the party moved inside a banquet hall, where tables were set up for the wedding meal, as well as a stage and a dance floor for later. Sure, all the windows were kept open, still we were technically indoors. As we all know, when sitting at a table a face mask is not needed, so we kept eating, drinking, talking, and greeting people around us, without much worry. Only on the way to the bathroom would we done a mask... if we didn't forget. Most other guests did not even bother that much, but since we were at the wedding, we decided to focus on enjoying ourselves.
As the evening progressed, people started letting their guard down even more. Once the meal was finished and the band started to play, people got up to dance, as it's customary at a wedding. Though there was one or two people dancing with a mask on, or a visor, they remained the exception. The music was a good mix of the greatest Salsa and Cumbia hits of the last twenty years, even though I found it again overamplified and a bit painful for the ears. With a bit of alcohol, however, even that became bearable.
Apart from mixing up the air on the dance floor with copious droplets of everyone's bodily fluids, many important wedding traditions were followed. The obligatory bouquet and garter toss gave lots of unmarried guys and girls a chance to scramble on top of each other, trying to catch it, along with some flying microbes. Afterwards, all singles returned to their respective tables to mingle with their own groups.
Rational Intentions and A Taste of Reality
Knowing that this entire wedding would end up becoming such a super-spreading event, I prepared a brief risk assessment with the family, agreeing on maintaining certain safety protocols of our own. This included double face masks, refraining from dancing, singing, or touching others. Even when congratulating the couple we'd remain two meters away, and on top of everything, we would keep from consuming alcohol, so we would not become careless.
Eventually, however, it was clear that the only way to keep from exposing ourselves to any risk would be by staying away from the wedding all together (which was out question, of course). So instead of stressing out about details, we just surrendered to going with the flow. It's up to the next two weeks to see if anyone of us has actually gotten infected. Still, carrying this relaxed Mexican attitude over to my everyday life, if anyone wants to bother me about wearing a mask, my instinctive reply will be to tell them not to screw with me, or as they say in the local parlance: "No me chingues!"