Despite the high cost of bride prices in Igboland, especially during Christmas and other festive seasons, the Igbos still prefer and value conducting their marriages during this time.
Coming around during Christmas with one’s daughters is a subtle showcasing and unspoken announcement that the girls are ready to become brides. Many parents who scorn this age-long tradition painfully watch their daughters marry their non-Igbo church members, office colleagues, or schoolmates.
It is common knowledge that the Igbos “Male and Female” are very enterprising. They are migrant-entrepreneurs, who are noticeably out-going and immensely competitive. They prefer to leave their families and homes in search of greener pastures and live in the cities and foreign countries to seek ways to better their lot.
They can live in the cities from the beginning of the year to the end without visiting home, but one thing most of them would not do is celebrate the Christmas season without their families or mark it, outside their hometown.
The fact that many members of the community come back home during the Christmas period, means more families tend to fix the traditional weddings of their children at this period not just because there’ll be a larger attendance, but because the more prominent members of the village will be around too and they may grace the wedding during Christmas, because it’s that time when family and friends would be free and chanced to attend. After all, they all would be in town too and in turn give monetary gifts or something in kind.
Most young Igbo men who have traveled to faraway Europe or America for their different entrepreneurial ventures make it a point to come back home during the period in search of wives or husbands for marriage. This is usually when they’re chanced to visit their hometown in a year probably because of their busy schedules, many young ladies are out seeking eligible suitors, the ‘abroadians’ as it may improve their social placement in the community over time.
It is beyond a moot point that most couples who are from the same village probably met during the Christmas period. There’s this joy felt when a son or daughter of a community is getting married, this informs the need for members of the family of the couple, both nuclear and extended to come back home and witness the marriage and share in the joy of the couples.
Chioma Chukwu, a beautician, said that she met her husband during Christmas and got married the following Christmas. “I came back to see my family in the village in 2019 Christmas. My husband and I met during this period, dated for 11 months and fixed our wedding the following year Christmas.
“We didn’t do this on our own, it was our parents that convinced us that we should put the wedding during Christmas because people and more especially prominent people from our town would attend. We did and it was one of my favourite moments because I got to see my school mats and old friends once again,” she said.
Another reason why Igbos tend to fix their marriages during Christmas is that many love to show off their wealth and flaunt what they have and this they do more than any other ethnic group in Nigeria. It is believed that they travel to their villages to show off the wealth they have been able to accumulate over the years with a wedding during this period and to make the community remember them with their cars, big homes, and luxurious weddings they did in years after the wedding held.
Dr Felicita Ogbu, a medical doctor based in Hungary said that when she came back for Christmas in 2021, she was so surprised about how her friend planned his wedding. “To be honest, I saw no reason why he organised such a huge wedding, I don’t know if it’s to show off or what. He bought himself a 2019 Range Rover and a Benz for his wife to be. He invited many of his friends, home and abroad for this wedding including many chiefs and Igwes’ from his town and that of his wife.
“He later told me that he wants his wedding to be the talk of the town for years to come. I was just laughing because I didn’t see a reason in doing so, but trust e Igbos, that’s what gives us joy,” Dr. Ogbu said.
However, many indigenes of Igbo towns also go to weddings to get noticed by ladies after changing their dollar to naira, boost their ego if only to, at least, derive, first, the joy of giving, and making women flock around them and secondly, to prove that indeed, the grass is greener on the other side.
–Benprince Ezeh
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