BRIDAL: Easter — also a time for weddings

Tafadzwa Zimoyo – Bridal Writer

Easter is a holy period to commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, making it both a sombre and celebratory affair.

For the traditional African family, it is a time when they come together and discuss issues affecting them without any other distractions.

There are certain traditions to be maintained during this period and in the African home set-up, it means coming together as a family, slaughtering something for the cooking pot, feasting and being merry.

But with more novel trends creeping in, many people increasingly reserve the Easter holidays for events like weddings.

While traditionally weddings are usually held around the year-end festive season, Easter is gradually “stealing the cake” as more and more people prefer to walk down the aisle at this time.

They say this makes their weddings more memorable and also gives them the attention they deserve since just about everyone will be celebrating Easter.

“Easter is ideal for weddings these days because most people’s attention will be focused on going to church and since churches are the traditional places where weddings are held, it is then obvious that the turn-out will be impressive,” notes Juliet Tembo of Eastlea.

She says since marriage is something that should also be kept holy, it is ideal to have the ceremony during the Easter holiday.

“Tying the knot around Easter infuses into the whole ceremony that sense of holiness which should be the rock and foundation of weddings. And since people will also be praying deliverance, this helps in making a marriage stronger as people pray for more blessings for the wedded,” says Tembo.

There are, however, others who feel Easter should solely be about celebrating Jesus Christ and any other “earthly” occasions should not take centre stage.

“While the Bible makes it clear that whatever God has put together, let no man put asunder, I am of the opinion that Easter should solely belong to the Son of Man. We have the entire year to hold our weddings, and the significance of Easter should not be diluted,” weighs in Tinashe Njagu.

He goes on: “Jesus’ days should be kept hallowed and chaste and when you decide to host your weddings around that time, bad behaviour that often take place in the aftermath of such weddings should be dealt away with.”

Those who tie the knot during Easter often want to make the day unique. In some countries, the bride and groom wear robes associated with Bliblical characters. In Zimbabwe, Easter eggs, bunnies and such other things linked to the holiday are served to guests.

While the rich make such weddings more memorable by engaging professional designers to do their décor in line with the theme of Easter, it is also the ideal time for low-income earners to wed since charges for venues are low and sometimes even free in the case of churches.

In the spirit of giving during Easter holidays, some churches and venues do many of the things associated with Easter weddings free of charge because they say believing in Christ means giving whole-heartedly.

On the other hand, there are those who take advantage of the holiday to hike charges for venues, gowns, suites, food, music, and just about anything else to do with the weddings.

Easter also allows people to wed during on days like Thursday, Friday or Monday and not the traditional Saturday and Sunday nuptials.

 

If you have an Easter wedding feel free to invite us or send pictures of your wedding to [email protected]