A few weekends ago I was invited to some weddings here in Bengkulu. From what I am told, most weddings last around 3 days and involve several costume changes. The first wedding of the day was one of the teachers that I work with at the University. During the reception portion of the wedding (day 2) the bride, groom, and their parents dress in the traditional wedding clothes according to where each family is from (this is West Sumatera dress)
These girls performed a traditional dance at the reception.
From what I understand, the wedding party sits on an elaborately decorated stage throughout the entire reception (about 5 hours) while guests greet them and have their picture taken with them. There is no exact starting time for the reception and guests come and go throughout the day. For most formal events such as this, guests show up, say hello to the hosts, eat, then leave. No mingling, no forced, uncomfortable chit-chat with the 3rd cousins or various other crazy relatives...personally, I am a huge fan of this Indonesian style etiquette....
This is wedding #2 of the day. The bride and groom are wearing traditional Java dress (both bride and groom's family originally from there) This reception was held at the house of our librarian...I cannot express how hot this reception was. It was outside under a tent set up in the librarian's front yard and there were about a million people all crammed together. This combined with the inhumanely loud karaoke that served as the reception's entertainment resulted in almost unbearable conditions. A situation such as this is a perfect example of how Indonesian party etiquette proves to be quite useful. Guests get in, get out, and nobody passes out from heat exhaustion....
This was taken at the birthday party of my friend's son.
There's no birthday cake, but there is a certain kind of rice made on special occasions. It is custom for the honoree to cut the top of the rice and serve it to the most honored and respected guest at the occasion.
This is at an old British military fort in Bengkulu. Most weekends find it full of kids running around and students hanging out with their significant others.
On this particular day, I had a whole gang of "tour guides" who were more than happy to pose for photos every chance they got (they also got an enormous amount of joy out of teaching me dirty words in Indonesian...kids these days...they grow up so fast...)
Cows grazing on the University campus:
Neighbors:
Gecko trying to hide between the wall and ceiling of my house:
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