By Rewi Lyall
Last weekend, over two days, two friends of mine – let’s call them Katie and Yoyok – got married in a highly impressive manner. This was one of the two weddings I wrote about a couple of months ago. By way of a conclusion to the issues raised in that post, I should say that ultimately Yoyok was able to acquire a certificate from the priest who would oversee the wedding to the effect that he was on the path to conversion. This met the legal requirements involved. For her part, Katie was required to obtain from Australia documentary proof that she hadn’t been married before. As with every interaction with legal processes in Indonesia, there were a multitude of different agencies and offices that required documentation before they could proceed with the ceremony.
The first part, the Catholic wedding ceremony in the large church at Kota Baru (New Town! Ha!) was a pretty stock-standard affair, although for mine a highlight was when the priest performed a solo version of a Hebrew song which, had applause been appropriate, would have brought the house down. I was very pleased to be able to host the reception afterwards at my house.
The next day, though, was something special. A reception was held in the village of Yoyok’s family, and it was a massive event. I arrived at about 9.30 in the morning to get into costume. Yes, that’s right, Hanoman made another outing. But mine was by no means the most impressive costume of the day. Katie and Yoyok had themselves hired traditional gear, and most of the wedding party also donned variously sophisticated clobber.
Once ready, the wedding party made a procession down to the stage on which their thrones awaited their arrival. There was a bit of speechifying, followed by all and sundry queuing up to congratulate them and their respective parents. Then there was the photo shoot. All in all, this took a touch over two hours. I have no idea how many photos were taken. Some included some quite theatrical poses, including a few in which I think I’m admonishing the married couple for some reason. As soon I’ve got a copy I’ll update this post. As you can see from the photo to the right, two hours or more of standing around accepting good wishes can take its toll.
Although all of us were dressed in dancing costumes, it was far too hot for any such activity. The costumes, well at least mine, are made from some kind of polyester blend and you start sweating pretty much as soon as you put them on, so sitting around not doing much was the order of the day. Fortunately, there was about a five hour break between the formal reception and the evenings festivities, so we were able to shower and change.
The evening featured a nine hour wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performance. In fact, this turned out to be more than just a puppet show, with a kind of cabaret atmosphere. Starting at 9pm, the performance would go until dawn the next day. I, however, would not, leaving at about midnight. Booze had been acquired for the party, but there was some delay in accessing it for the reason that apparently there were several undercover police officers mingling amongst the crowd. Eventually, though, the local coffee flavoured drink (a personal favourite) and beer emerged.
