The Marrying Day

Yesterday we drove deep into the country and high into the mountains for the marrying ceremony of our two friends Koreloy and Bruce.  Their term for the ceremony was their nuptial flight resourcery, honoring their launching of themselves into a new trans-parental phase of their lives, when they are a couple alone without children for the first time.  Over a hundred of their friends gathered, and almost everyone played an active role in the day, which began at a 12:30 gathering of women at one of the little handmade houses on their land to get Koreloy ready while the men gathered at another location and played music.  On the left is Koreloy in the doorway holding a clay penny whistle as Bruce leads a procession of men to come calling for her for the ceremony.  On the right are the two of them wearing wild flower garlands while some women are opening the ceremony by casting the four directions.

On the left is one of the guests, and the snakey object above and to the right is a flexible gas pipe that he played like a very high-pitched tuba.  On the right is another guest, and to the far right is the broom that was jumped over (by the couple and also by everyone else who wanted to) at the end of the five-hour ceremony.

The guests sat on the ground or on chairs or in various "bowers" around a stone labyrinth during the ceremony, which took place in the center of the labyrinth.  Here is one of the guests sitting near a canoe that was beautifully furnished with red parasols and shawls and pillows, a great resting place for ceremony-weary guests needing a rest break.  The weather was perfect, but toward evening it got chilly, and the shawls and blankets came in handy.

Just before the jumping-over-the-broom, Bruce cut Koreloy's hair and she washed and anointed his feet with oils.  She had been growing her hair for a year in preparation for this lightening-up.  These are really quick sketches of Bruce cutting her hair and then of Koreloy with her new short hair.  After the ceremony, we all traveled in various ways through the woods and down the road to the area of Koreloy's studio and Bruce's office where we had a wonderful late supper under white tents.