Last Saturday we went to a wedding, because some of the kids were dancing there, so now I have a little experience about how a wedding goes like here – which is pretty similar to what it`s like at home. Except for that I`m not sure, that I could walk in to somebody`s wedding without an invitation at home… Anyways, it all started in the church, where the ceremony was a bit different that one at home. Instead of talking, there were a lot more singing and dancing, too. And the whole thing just wasn`t so strict: people could still walk in and out during the ceremony. After this we all went to another place, which was in the garden of the hotel. Speeches were said here, there was some dancing and food was served, too. This part a bit shorter than at home, because the place was probably rented only for this time. They had a program, that contained all the speeches and everything and they sticked to this program pretty much. Altogether at weddings there are huge celebrations here, too, when people spend a lot of money and they all have a lot of fun.
We were at a funeral this Saturday and it might be a bit more surprising that here funerals are just as big ceremonies or actually maybe even bigger than weddings. Here a funeral is open to everybody and it`s absolutely not just for the close family and friends. It also starts in the church then they have they have speeches at another place and after that they go to the graveyard. This one was held in the park of a university in Tema, which is close to Accra. It was at a huge place, with tents around and hundreds of people attending. Not everybody was wearing black, some of the people were wearing white dresses with a little black on it. Right there I had the feeling that it looked more like a festival than a funeral. There was even live music after the speeches and food was served here to everybody as well. It was really amazing. I was told here, that in Ghana the funeral is more like a celebration: the celebration of someone`s life (we even got a small booklet with the persons life written in it and a whole lot of pictures and everything) and death. They think that death might be painful physically, but altogether it`s a good thing, because without death there`s no transition. And how true this is! Well, these we my impressions right there, but later I was told, people do cry here at funerals, too, mostly the family, but sometimes others, too, to help them with this. Well, it`s true, that I didn`t go too close, so maybe I just caught an impression as an outsider… I don`t know, but it still was an amazing experience. Anyway, here`s a picture of it just to see how big it was:
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