Entry: Ritual practices- The “Wedding”
One particular ritual practice that this species gives a lot of time and attention to is the “wedding.” The wedding is a ceremony with many variable factors, however, is often marked by the following constants:
- Location: There are two primary locations where a wedding ritual occurs- inside a building marked by two long lines that cross each other in the middle, or somewhere outdoors.
- Attendance: The average number of species in attendance at wedding events is around 100.
- Attention given to two primary individuals: In general, two primary individuals are the central focus of the wedding event. One of the individuals will normally be adorned in swaths of white fabric that cover the body from the head to the feet. The other individual will be covered in two distinct cuts of black fabric. After the ceremony detailed below, the two primary individuals tend to demonstrate behavior towards one another that involves much physical contact including mouth mashing, body pressing, and finger entwining.
Two-part ceremony:
First half: For the first half of a wedding ceremony, the species in attendance will sit in rows of chairs all facing the front of the room where a number of individuals covered in black fabric stand in a line parallel to the chairs. The chairs are divided into two sections by an open middle aisle. Once an appropriate amount of time has passed, cadenced music will begin to play and a number of individuals will slowly walk down the aisle in sequence, and then stop and stand at the front of the room. The last person to walk down the aisle is the one adorned in white fabric. When this occurs, all seated species stand up and do not sit back down until the person in white fabric has arrived at the front of the room. Then the person in white fabric grabs hands with the primary person in black fabric and they stare at each other. While this is occurring, one person stands behind them and emits sounds from their mouth for a period of time, every now and then requiring the main individuals to repeat the sounds from their own mouths. At the end, the main individuals will put a small, hollowed circle of metal on each other’s fingers and mash their mouths together, which will cause the species sitting in attendance to repeatedly slam their hands, creating a sharp cracking sound, and emit high pitched cries from their mouths. The same individuals who originally walked down the open aisle will walk back, and this time the species in attendance will follow them.
Second half: The second half of the wedding ceremony generally occurs in a separate space from the first half. During this part of the ritual practice the same individuals will sit at tables laden with solid and liquid sustenance that is consumed in great quantities. After the consumption, loud rhythmic sounds are blasted from large speakers and some of the audience members will gather on a platform close to the speakers and move different parts of their bodies to the rhythm of the sounds. In addition to rhythmic body movements, the species at wedding ceremonies also engage in much communication with one another- primarily by moving their mouths and emitting sounds, but also by frequently throwing their heads back, opening their mouths wide, and letting out high pitched pulses of noise.
