When my network began to act in a manner that was not pleasing today, I began to imagine things as my mind began to admire some beautiful events and happenings.

http://www.madivasmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/yoruba-wedding-madivas-@weezy_scott.jpg?x71067

I saw some pictures of some beautiful and well adorned Yoruba brides and I began to imagine myself in that beautiful attire with smiles beaming through my little face and walking confidently as a Yoruba bride.
I decided to share about how the Yoruba's go about their traditional wedding.

The Yoruba traditional wedding is a really colorful and eventful occasion but before the main day of the events, some underground preparations have taken place, those preparations are only known by members of the family and relatives, the only thing that the friends and well wishers will know is that the wedding ceremony is going to be taking place on a fixed date and they will all come to celebrate with the newly wedded couple.

Those things that occur behind the scene in preparation for a Yoruba marriage, are things I will be educating my wonderful readers about today.

When the Man who is intending to get married sees a beautiful lady and has has his heart drawn to her, he walks up and introduces himself, if after sometime, the Lady agrees to be his wife, he informs his relatives who begin to investigate about the family of the lady and when they become satisfied with the result of the investigation, they go with their son, to the Lady's house in order to make his intentions known to the family of the bride.

When the both families meet each other, they bride's family begins to investigate about the type of family their daughter is about to get married into, they find out if the family had any infirmity before, if they have any problem whatsoever, when they are certain that there is no problem with the intended family, then proper preparation begins.

The Engagement Ceremony

This ceremony is usually a beautiful one celebrated by the yoruba's and it is usually anchored by an expert known as alaga ijoko, this ceremony is usually carried out in the bride's parent house, where the parent of the bride and older relatives have the sole responsibility of giving out their daughters hand in marriage.

Prior to this day, the bride's family would have given out a list of the items required to the grooms family and the groom's family are required to present those items on the day of the engagement.

The alaga ijoko checks the item and confirms that the required materials are complete and intact before the celebration begins.

The groom dances into the venue in the company of his friends, when they get to the venue they are expected to prostrate before the parents of the bride, depending on the number of times the coordinator demands. A letter written by the groom's family is read by a very young person to request for their daughters hand in marriage.

The bride's family as well, reads another letter in response to the one received from the groom, to tell them that they have agreed to release their daughter to them.

The groom sits after prostrating expecting his bride as the events goes on, his bride is hereafter ushered into the events with dancing and songs in the company of her friends, the bride is covered with a veil.
When she gets to the entrance, the grooms family is asked t pay so that their bride can come in, they threaten to return her back if the condition is not meet.

When the groom's family pays, the bride is then allowed to come to the scene . To unveil the bride in order to ascertain that she is the one they have come to get married to, the grooms family is asked to pay another amount, after the payment, they remove the veil and she kneels before her parents and her husbands parent, she is told that her husband's parent have also become her parent as from that day forward.

Among all the items brought by the husband's family, thy contain items like cloth, shoes, bags, box of jewelries, sugar, the holy book (Bible or Quran) and she is asked to pick one item, she picks the holy book and this means that she will allow the holy book to direct, protect and keep her home.

The exchange of ring takes place afterwards and

She is then ushered to sit before her husband who smiles as he beholds the beautiful woman he has chosen. She feeds him and adjusts his cap properly, this is to show that she will take proper care of him after the wedding.
The exchange of ring takes place and blessings follow.
Food is been served to people who attended the event and they dance all through as they celebrate with the newly wedded couple.

Thanks for taking out time to read through my blog, it's your Nigerian girl @oluwatobiloba.
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