Marriages are occasions when families, relatives and friends meet and greet each other, while newlyweds prepare for a new journey.
In Salalah, most marriages are performed during the monsoon (khareef) season due to the availability of people this time around.
The weather becomes pleasant, business gets a boost and people generally stay in Salalah to enjoy khareef.
Mohammed, a retired government employee, has a unique situation to share.
Being socially active, he has a wide contact list, which means “more invitations from people to attend social events such as marriages, etc”. “In Dhofar, we have a culture of giving money at marriage ceremonies. This is reciprocated when there is such an event in our family. This is helpful in sharing the burden of wedding expenses, which is increasing every day due to various reasons,” he said.
Having retired this year, Mohammed was in a fix after receiving some 100 wedding invitations from Salalah, Taqah, Mirbat, Itin, etc.
An aerial picture taken in Taqah shows wedding tents on both sides of the road.[/caption]
He wanted to attend all of them but had to shortlist as there is a social commitment to “give some money” to the wedding host.
“I have so far attended 83 marriages. The participation amount depends upon your closeness with the family.
Though it is not mandatory, to me it varies between RO 10 and RO 50. Now you can understand my difficulty,” he laughs.
“I still support this system because it happens only during the wedding season and a clever man like me saves some money every month for marriages I am supposed to attend.”
Mohammed supports the tradition of giving some money during social functions due to its inherent social support ingrained in the system.
“It is like sharing someone’s burden even though it is not mandatory. Some people have started giving gift items, I stick to giving money.”
Similar is the case with Bakhit, who took up a job a couple of years ago. “Marriages are performed mainly on weekends for everybody’s convenience. Out of a total of 22 invitations, I attended five marriages last week, two each in Saada and Taqah respectively and one in Mirbat. I paid RO 10 for each of them.”
Bakhit recalled that last year he could give RO 50, 20, or 10 but because of the new house he built and moved into this year, his budget is tight.
He has decided to save some money every month for the marriages so they do not come as a burden.
He too supports the system of giving some money at weddings.
Kaushalendra Singh
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