In Nigerian culture, marriage is not only the product of love between two individuals but also the coming together of two families and the community. Culture, which is the people's way of life, has marriage strongly institutionalised into it. It plays a major role in Nigerian culture, which is why you can see how big a deal it is here in Nigeria. Way before the white wedding was in place, each tradition in Nigeria had its way of celebrating weddings. Today, it is referred to as a traditional wedding. This is why Nigerians tend to have two weddings, one for the church, known as the white wedding, and the other is the Traditional wedding to stay true to their cultural heritage and roots.
For every tradition in Nigeria, the traditional wedding differs, but with some underlying core process that cuts across all traditional wedding and that is the courtesy visit from the groom's family. The groom's family pays a visit to the family of the bride, telling them of their son's intention to ask for their daughter's hand in marriage. This is done out of respect for both families to serve as the prerequisite to any other thing that comes next. This is an illustration for love that does come through the back or the window; it has to follow the formal process of going through the door.
The next phase in doing things is the question and answer, more like an investigation through questions to understand more about families for a strong future bond. This will help both families to get to know each other, not just from the information passed across from the supposed people about to get married. This information will help in understanding more about the other family. It is like a courtesy visit to share bio data, at least that is what I see it as, but this time, bio data on family history, heritage, and more stuff like that.
Once the meeting of both families has been completed, the next stage will be the traditional wedding proper for the union of both the groom and bride. This is where the true performance and exhibition of the tradition and culture. The ceremony is a display of both cultures coming together as one, and it is beautiful. This is where the true beauty of our Nigerian culture is brought to life. Starting from the outfit of the bride and groom, making it easy for you to denote that this is a cultural celebration. The food, outfit, activity, and more. The most impressive for me is the dancing. I enjoy watching the dance steps of the groom and the bride, and even better when they are in dance mode with their groomsmen and bridesmaids. The moves are electric, especially the ones that are choreographed. You find a lot of this online, especially on TikTok. Things like this have made it admirable for foreigners to long for an invitation to a Nigerian traditional wedding because of the activities.
Traditional marriage is one of the many preservations of our Nigerian culture, and I love it when couples honour this ceremony. You get a taste of what it means to be Nigerian, and we all get to joli together for the ceremony. So many things make us special, and this is one of them.
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