Of Kampong Weddings and its Values

Months of November and December are de-facto months for weddings - it is the school holidays and the also for working people to 'clear' their annual leaves. Ever since I can remember, I love the kampung weddings, simply because they are unique in every which way.

However, nowadays, most of the things are modernized - take food for example, it use to be that the food during the wedding are cooked by the family of the bride/groom, assisted by their relatives, who came from far and away, just to be part of the programme. They would slaughter the meat there, prepare the rice there, prepare the eggs to be given to the guest there, the list goes on and on and on..

Sometimes, the relatives have to be there a few days early so that they can prepare those things in time, and the bride/groom parents or guardian had to prepare a 'temporary house' to make sure that the relatives sleeping accommodations are taken care off. As a matter of fact, these are the party time for the whole families since this is among one of those occasions where the entire 'clan' were brought together to help and celebrate the wedding of one of their own.

I remember those days as late as the end 80's when my uncle got married. It was superb, even though I was in my teens then. The atmosphere is one of jubilant, togetherness, pressure, gossipping and decorative all roll into one.

Nowadays, everything seems to be catered for, because we now have money, and we want it easy. The food are catered for, the tents are catered for, the music are catered for, the 'pelamin' are catered for and the photographers are catered for. Lost were the fine touches of kampung weddings where we see the uniqueness of the society back then, lost to the current era of modernization where almost everything is now 'outsourced'.

I do hope that still in some part of our country, these traditions are still in place. It would be horrible to lose this uniqueness, since we should preserve them for our future generations, my kids and your kids, to better understand how it was used to be, and why was it that way.

The question is, is that sustainable..