A Qatari Wedding Party

My school's assistant principal invited me and some other western guys from work to his nephew's wedding party. The wedding ceremony itself probably happened in the Sharia Court with just a few members of the family present to witness the signing of the marriage contract, without much pomp. So around 7:30 I drove to a gigantic empty field of crushed rock and dust (the native state of most of Qatar's wildlands) where 4 separate wedding parties were being held. Each party had a big sign announcing the family name of the groom in front of a greeting area of about a quarter acre of persian rugs with upholstered chairs facing inward around the perimeter, along with flood lights. The smell of burning incense was strong. This was in front of the enormous white tent (about the size of a soccer field, and two stories high) with a transparent plastic front and chandeliers hanging from the top. Inside, a queue led directly to the groom and his receiving line. The bride and her invited guests were elsewhere at an invitation-only party at a hotel that I assume was something like this. But this party, like most grooms' parties in Qatar, was open to anyone who felt like coming in, as long as they were dressed in traditional Qatari dress or at least semi-formal western dress (slacks and a button-up shirt, plus nice shoes and maybe a tie or jacket). The tent, like the outside greeting area, had persian rugs with upholstered chairs around the entire perimeter. For every few chairs, there was a coffee table with dates, nuts, tissues, and water on it. Live musicians provided entertainment and a chance for anyone interested to come dance (someone else's video) with a sword in hand. The singers (all men) faced one another in two parallel lines about 20 feet apart, with a circle of drummers in the middle. They sang songs of battle and glory in Arabic. Party guests grabbed a sword from a pile and stepped in rhythm slowly around the circle hoisting or shaking or twisting or bobbing the sword, each in his own unique style. A crane camera recorded their performance while the rest of a full camera crew recorded the receiving line and fed it to a projector that showed the view from alternating cameras on screen near the entrance. After greeting the groom, guests usually mingled and found other friends, then made their rounds along the perimeter, touching noses or kissing foreheads (for especially honored friends). Around 8:30, everyone rushed to the adjacent tent, perpendicular and connected to the first, where 80 round banquet tables sat laden with roasted goats on trays of saffron rice with white raisins and boiled eggs, surrounded by small bowls of salad, pitas, and hummus, as well as sodas and bottles of water. Seating was a free-for-all, almost like musical chairs when the music stops, with only the groom's table--with its roasted camel--off limits to most visitors. At each table, the person of highest social standing or most closely connected to the groom ripped off hunks of meat with his bare hands and distributed them to the other guests, who helped themselves to the rest of the food and ate just as often with the silverware as with their right hands.

Before entering the eating area, I talked with the performers. They were from Saudi Arabia. The only thing they asked me about America is whether we keep falcons as they do!

It was a great night, and I'm very grateful to my host for inviting me. Now that I know I could go into any wedding party here and receive the same treatment, I think I might go out driving on weekend evenings all dressed up more often! I didn't take any pictures, but this post from a stranger has some that look just like what I saw. And here is an interesting Al Jazeera article with commentary on the current state of Qatari wedding traditions.