TRADITIONAL WEDDING IN EZZA COMMUNITY OF EBONYI STATE
There are several communities in Ebonyi state.One of the most respected, very powerful in war, and very populated is the Ezza nation.Infact, history has it that Ezza nation does not throw in the towel in war.No wonder the Ezza Ezzilo crisis of 2008-2011 went viral in Nigeria.This attribute makes every male child in Ezza nation a valiant warrior, a brave man to the core and a humble man to a fault.This nation values tradition greatly and most importantly, traditinal wedding culture.
It is considered abhorent for a man and a woman to live together without carring out this very important rite of doing the traditional wedding.It is note worthy that the white wedding is not a replacement for this traditional wedding.It makes the man qualified as well as worthy of benefiting from some traditional endowments of the community like; title giving, age grade, opinion group and even top ranking members of the masquerade cult group and other entitlements.
The name of the traditional wedding in Ezza nation is "Igbanfu Ezza."There are so many items that are very important for this ceremony to take place successfully.These items include:Enough galons of palm wine, Many crates of alcoholic drink, crates of soft drink, three big raps of tobacco snuff, two female local cows, five female goats, enough kolanut and no money.
Before these items are presented, a young man of marriageable age will get to love a young woman of same age bracket.When these intending couples have developed affection for each other, they will initiate a working relationship.This relationship will lead them to meet their parents in order to familiarize with their relations.This action makes it possible for the two families to know each other.
As part of the preliminary stages of this traditional wedding, the bride-groom will have to perform the necessary marital rites.This rite includes they payment of all the statutory dowry of the land.In Ezza land, a woman is given out for marriage once the fiance has paid majority of the items in the dowry known as"Eze iwhe" in Ezza translation.
The payment of the dowry takes a laid down due process.First and foremost, the man will have to take a galon of palmwine to the bride's family.As a routine, the family of the groom will have to reject this first gallon of palmwine.
Consequent on this rejection, the young man in the company of his kinsmen will repeat their visit.This second time, the wine is normally accepted.After accepting the wine,the elders will now call the girl for necessary interrogation.One of the foremost question the girl answers is,"Do you know this young man here?""Do you like him?""Do you ask us to go ahead and drink this wine?".If the girl answers yes to all these question, the yes from the girl now gives the elders the right to accept the bride groom.This acceptance is normally followed by a handshake from the bride grooms family.
Normally after this acceptance, the bride groom is asked to come back after four market days or anyother time convenient by him.During this coming, the elders will convene again.This time around,the reason is to name the materials that constitute the statutory dowry of Ezza nation,to the bride groom.After this, the man decides on when to come back with the materials mentioned.
When the bride repeats his coming, the elders will gather again to evaluate the materials brought, in order to ascertain its completness.By the time the elders have said that the dowry is complete.The girl automatically belongs to the bride groom.
After this, the young man and the woman are now very free to go and begine making preparation for their wedding ceremony.At the "D day" of the ceremony,the girl will be fully dressed in the traditional attire of the land,which is a red judge rapper and a white blouse or any traditional attire of her choice.The man himself will wear his chieftaincy attire or any other dress of his choice also.Most of the time,the man and the woman will prefer to wear the same type of cloth.
The venue for the ceremony is normally arranged in a way that their will be a local temporary hut where the man and his wife will stay.
The elders of the land will gather to admister the rite of traditional wedding on the couple.After admimistring the rite and performing othe necessary rituals,the elders will now pronounce the couple husband and wife.This pronouncement is immediately preceded by the giving of a glass of palmwine to the lady to go and look for her husband in the midst of other men of his age grade.As the lady finds her husband and gives him the drink after taking a sip,the bride groom will give the bride a warm embrace and the both of them will now sit together inside the temporary hut prepared for them. Dorris Wedding convertible wears for bridesmaid With twist wrap
At this junction,the master of ceremony(MC) will start inviting the guests as well as the celebrants for a dance.The dancing