Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Hokay, lemme explain..

When I extended my invitations to my chinese friends a lil earlier back, I somehow got this nagging vibe that their perception of an engagement is somewhat different from mine. where do i get the vibe from? well, mostly illustrated through the series of enthusiastic and high-spirited questions they bombarded me with..

Q1: so its gonna be held at the void deck right?
Q2: we supposed to bring eggs, arent we?
Q3: how many tiered cake are you ordering?
Q4: wow! You guys gonna ROM this Sat!
Q5: Cool! So you bought a flat then?
Q6: Have you considered prenuptial agreement? (!!!)
Q7: eh, must wear coat or not?

Hee .. so cute right, my friends? Esp the eggs bit. No dear, you dun need to bring eggs, my mum bought plenty. Enough for the occasion.

So anyways, lemme address this misconception before any culture shock arise..

Engagement in the malay/muslim context is not a must, its more of a tradition, tho I have to say that it adds a whole ton of excitement and anticipation. I will skip the whole purpose part cos its too boring and I am suddenly getting bored of this post. Suffice to say, in todays context, engagement is normally held between a couple who has known each other for quite sometime, and its not very pleasant to see them going around without any sorta bind between them. a somewhat prelude to marriage. Personally, I call it the i-chope-this-one-already occasion.

So anyways, its more of a small occasion compared to the actual wedding-which comes at a much later date, thats when the couple ROM, tho muslims in sg register their marriages at the RegistryOfMuslimMarriages instead. Usually graced by close relatives and friends, the engagement is normally held separately at the houses of both of the guy and girl. it simply involves the guys party coming over to the girls place, the exchange of gifts, sliding the engagement ring on an obviously very delighted girl while taking care that the girl dun hyperventilate and collapse in all that excitement, snapping lots of photos with the by-then cramped-smile girl and off they went, lalala-ing back to the guys house with the exchanged gifts.

Ps: The guy normally stays at home and shakes leg, enjoying the feast over at his side and oblivious to just about everything else (except the dowry bit, which he already promised the girl. somehow tat part is always the nagging bit).

so there... malay engagement 101, in yana's context.

lalalalala...

r.z 3:48 PM  1 comments