Translated by Michel Aronssohn.
News from Equinoxe.
Today
we may title : “Chronicle”.
You remember. Equinoxe told it, I married “Buddhist way”, you could ask :
what is it ?
It is a little bit like Europe, we get married in the town hall then in
the church.
We made a short stop at the district’ house to declare our wedding to the monks,
they condescend to register us on the books after a few bucks payment,
however they have not issued a marriage certificate !
In Cambodia, for marriages seniors opinion takes place of law. The marriages
recall the union of Rama and Sita, they are divided into three parts :
preliminaries, marriage and after marriage. Nowadays the ceremony has been
shortened to one or two days.
The ceremony is linked to a legend which is ruling the words and the musics.
On marriage eve a ceremony occurs in the
bride’s house to allow the parents and friends to honour ancestor’s memory. Avy
lost her parent a few years ago, so this moment was very solemn and stamped with
a great emotion.
On the next morning I was waked up at 4am by a traditional Cambodian music, the
amplifier was at full throttle, so impossible to stay
in the bed. So the neighboring people is informed of the event.
After diverse preparations, it is already 6 am, I am driven, with escort and music to “Néa’Ta’s place (spirit) and I make a wov for a joyous ceremony. Then I move with music and followers toward the bride’s house. I carry with me a silver cup with an Arequier’s flower bud. It will be opened at the end of the ceremony.
The bride-groom collects all the gifts and flowers and presents them to the
parents. Then we head on to the big hall to hear the Achar (person initiated to
religious rites serving as go-between with the laymen and the bonzes and
organizing the rites ruled by the customs).
Hair clipping ceremony
We are sitting, in the middle of the hall near
a table where Arequier’s flowers. A golden ring is placed into Avy’s hairs.
Two ceremonial masters are playing comedies
and interpret comic songs around us. From time to time they are clipping our
hairs with scissors (the jokes are relaxing the atmosphere, permit to speak to
the ancestors and to tackle without shame erotic questions), as soon the golden
ring is discovered they proclaim the marriage happiness and prosperity.
Then parents and friends are coming to clip hairs also. Pity for the bald !
Ceremony of bridal prostration.
I show up at the bride’s house entrance. She
wecomes me ` wash symbolically my feet. Then both of us on a mat we bow down,
hands clasped on a pillow.
The arequier’s bud is opened, the seeds are distributed among parents and friends who cast them on us with their vows.
All are crowding around us to knotting red cotton threads to our wrist. The
bride holds out her scarf, I must seize it while she show me her room.
She offers me one cigarette and fruits. The Achar explains us our respective role as husband and wife.
The banquet begins, Avy and me are staying at the hall entrance, she offers a
flower to each guest who comes to greet us.
During this extraordinary ceremony I measure the symbolic value, the chance and the good idea I had to come to Cambodia to marry. I have been so moved and happy to live these unforgettable moments.
During the ceremony Avy changed her dress seven times. I changed my traditional dress three times.
The next day we take the speed boat to cross the Tonlé Sap lake to visit the prestigious Angkor Wat.
A few days later we head off to the airport to fly to Bangkok and Paris. The parents and some friends came along for the chance as they say. The farewell moment has been difficult to Avy.