Palestinian Jaaha

I just flew back from Kuwait a few hours ago.

I was supposed to catch the late flight on Thursday. My brother's best friend asked me if i can make it to his engagement ceremony that took place this weekend.

As mentioned in the previous post below, I was on a quick 48hrs customer mission to Kuwait. I didn't pack much cloths, let alone something formal to wear for an engagement party.

It turned out that my dad, brother and I were actually asked to be part of this friend's Jaaha.

For those of you who don't know, being invited to be part of a Jaaha is a real honor. I couldn't say No. I changed my booking reservation, bought a suit, tie, shirt, belt and new pair of shoes.. thats of course after getting my wife's permission whom I left in Dubai for the weekend. :)

Jaaha, Arabic for entourage, is when the male senior members of the groom's family pay the bride-to-be family A VISIT at their house and propose to the bride's father.

On the the brides side of the family, an equally large male welcoming party is usually on the other side of the hall.

It is mainly a Palestinian/Jordanian tradition. Some Syrian/Lebanese families still follow this tradition, but you'd only see it in rural areas or in families that are still holding on to this tradition.

This is how it all goes down.

The two main heads of the families do all the talking. The groom-to-be keeps his mouth shut and lets the big boys do all the talking.

In traditional, and i mean really really traditional families, negotiations on the arrangements and worthiness of the groom to ask for the girls hand in marriage can get really intense.

You see, the intensity of the negotiations reflects how dear and precious the bride is to her family. Its like saying, "we ain't letting our girl go that easy, you have prove that you deserve her."

That's why its imperative for the groom's family Jaaha to gather as much men as possible in terms of numbers, and as presentable and reputable, in terms of rank and social status. They will back the groom's father and demonstrate to the bride's family that they are worthy of their daughter.

Now back to last night's Jaaha.

My dad, brother and I were part of about a 40 man-Jaaha. So I wasn't worried about the number aspect. And as for the 'quality and rank bit', I think my dad, brother and I were the only ones that weren't doctors.

It happened to be that my brother's best friend is a doctor, his elder brother is a doctor, his sister is a doctor, his mom is a doctor and I think every uncle, cousin and niece is 'or planning to be' a doctor.

Bottom line, the guy was all pimped out and his posse was ready to roll.

I've never attended a REAL Palestinian Jaaha before and I was really looking forward for this one. And from the looks of it, its clearly seemed that I was with the stronger team.. go figure

So, we walked in on the hall. It took about 15to 20 minutes for about a 100 people to shake hands with everybody else, find places to sit and make sure that everyone is sitting in the right place.

My hopes for intense heated negotiations, people boasting their wealth, knowledge and social status died away quickly when the father of the bride said following the groom's dad 2 minute speech, "I accept, lets read Al Fatehaa"

"That's it?" I whispered to my brother who leaned back and said: "they agreed on everything last week. This is just for the relatives"

I guess that's how Jaaha's go down these days.

Oh well, at least I got to eat Knafeh Nabulsieh.