-^-for posterity-^-

the second day of the year of the monkey.

on the second day of tet, people are supposed to visit their home land. today, we had a more important mission to complete. i had to go with one of my best vietnamese friends to attend the engagement ceremony of his girlfriend’s sister.

in vietnam, there are three ceremonies when you get married. the first ceremony is when both of the families get to know each other. it is fairly informal and people walk around and ask each other what they do and how long they’ve don’t that. the second party is the official engagement party. this is much more formal with speeches and people standing up with glasses in their hands looking quite important. the third party is obviously the wedding. in the past, according to what i’ve been told, there was seven different parties to allow both families to thoroughly get to know each other. today, that tradition is not carried on because, in the words of my friend, it’s quite tiresome in today’s modern world.

the party i attended was the first one. it was the ‘get to know one another’ party. while it is not fitting with the tradition of the lunar new year, it did seem to work out nicely.

the two families had never met each other before and they gathered at the house of the soon-to-be bride. her house was located on a large island in the middle of the river. it is an incredibly placid place. the trees all seem to sway slowly. the air is very fresh. the sounds of motorcycles are all drowned out by the breadth of the river. it is a farming island and it truly is one of the few slices of paradise left.

the two families stood next to one another on the front lawn of her house trying their best to make conversation. it was interesting, the way they talked was as if they were two families that used to know each other long ago and were finally getting reacquainted. in my experience, vietnamese nationalism views every member of their nation as a member of the same family. i stood around all morning and afternoon and watched two long lost brothers reunite. it’s really difficult to explain. i guess some would feel the same in the mennonite community back home. there we have a tight knit group of people that all have a relatively similar background. in a way, that’s the same thing i see here.