Igbo Traditional Wedding – The Search
Photo Courtesy – Naric Weddings
Igbo traditional wedding is a beautiful celebration and the search process is the main part of the wedding ceremony.
It’s the part of the celebration when the bride finds and presents her new husband to her parents in front of all their guests and well-wishers.
The Search is also the “Wine Carrying” ceremony. And the completion of this ceremony signifies the couple are married in Igbo traditional laws and customs; and gains all the marital rights.
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While the celebration is going on, the bride must stay inside the house until her father calls her out to greet the guests.
When she is called, the bride will come dancing to music with her Asoebi ladies behind her. Asoebi ladies are friends of the bride there to support her on her special day. When she comes out, the bride goes around and greets all their guests and leaves. The celebration continues. The guests eat and drink, while entertainment takes place too.
While back inside the house, the bride changes into a new outfit and ready to come out for the second time to find her new husband. But before she comes out, the groom must hide among the guests as tradition demands for the bride to search for him.
THE SEARCH
Once it’s time for the bride to come out for the second time, the bride will dance out once again with her Asoebi ladies behind her towards her parents and kneels before her father.
Her father gives her a cup of wine and instructs her to go and find the man she intends to marry and give the wine to him.
With the cup of wine in hand, the bride dances through the guests looking for her groom.
When she finds him, she kneels before him, sips a little of the wine, and offers her groom the rest to drink.
The groom accepts the wine, drinks it all, and puts any amount of money inside the empty cup for his bride.
RELATED POST: For more on Igbo traditional wedding and all the process steps, check out SEVEN STEPS OF IGBO WEDDING
After that and cheered on by the crowd, the bride takes her groom to her father for blessing. Upon getting to her father, the couple kneels before him for his blessings.
Before blessing the couple, the father confirms once again with his daughter the young man before him is the man she wants to marry. Following her confirmation, her father blesses the couple, pronounce them married and offers them words of advice.
After the blessings, the couple will rise to music and cheers from the guests, which leads to their first dance as husband and wife.
Shortly into their first dance, family and friends join them on the dance floor. After the dance, the couple cuts their wedding cake. This is the last act before the dance floor is officially open for all the guests to join the couple and dance the night away.
In conclusion, the end of the traditional wedding day is very emotional for the bride and her family because she will leave her parents’ house after the ceremony and go with her new husband and his family to her new marital home.
I wish you all the best….Cheers!
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