Following my heart to Cameroon

One of the Cameroonian wedding traditions that gave me the most pause was the presentation of gifts at the wedding reception. The custom is that the MC gets the names of everyone who has brought a gift for the newlyweds and then there is a ceremony where the couple formally receive the gifts when the MC calls the names. I thought it seemed almost rude to highlight who had and hadn’t brought gifts, but I was assured it was a very enjoyable event for all the guests.

William and I had to stand in front of the head table and the attendants were also there to take the gifts from us after we had accepted them. The MC called out the name and the DJ played some music to accompany the person who came forward with the gift. Most of the people who came up danced to the music and generally made a production of the presentation. (It reminded me of the presentation of spoils in one of my favourite movies, “The Ten Commandments”. How un-PC is that?) People also made a show of being reluctant to give the gift and wanting kisses and hugs before handing them over.

It was a great new tradition for me to learn and I thoroughly enjoyed getting all our presents. It also makes the wedding video very interesting.

Tags: Cameroon, customs, gifts, Travel, Wedding, Tag Index

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2005 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.