Yesterday my husband and I attended a Chaldean wedding. This was our fourth one. Now, how did we get invited to so many Chaldean weddings you ask?
Weeellllll, there is this great Middle Eastern restaurant, here, in Windsor, called Windsor Palace and it is owned by a wonderful Chaldean family who escaped from Iraq several years ago. It's on Wyandotte Street, smack-dab in the middle of our Middle Eastern section of town. I swear it has the best Middle Eastern food around. Windsor is actually quite lucky in one aspect - we not only have a Middle Eastern section in town, we have an Italian, Indian, and an Oriental section. This does not include the other thirty some odd foreign food restaurants that are scattered throughout our fair city. Windsor has 107 different ethnicities.
We have been going to Windsor Palace for years. In fact, Rennie, the oldest boy, was just nineteen when we met him. Then comes his sister Ranna, then Raymon, Rony, and the youngest, Rutie.
Will and I have had many lively discussions with these fine, young, adults over the years. We have discussed the Iraqi war, Saddam Hussein, President Bush, Israel...you name it, we've discussed it.
However, the most interesting of those topics was always when we compared our customs and our two languages. I found it very interesting that the Chaldeans and Jews got along very well before the Jews were expelled from Iraq. And after comparing, it was obvious why we did. It was fun discovering just how much we have in common! Our friendships deepened over the years and I adore all of them.
Rennie married six years ago to a stunningly beautiful girl named Lydia. That was our first Chaldean wedding. We had a fabulous time! So, as the children get older, it has been our very great honour and privilege to attend four weddings. Sad to say, there is only one more to go.
The big community dance is very similar to the Hora, except there is a lot of shoulder lifting in rhythm with the music. There was a difference - whereas our Hora is a bit more exuberant, their dance lasts ever so much longer. Like forty-five minutes long for one dance! People hold up cloth triangles that have metal circles on them, and then they shake them vigorously while they dance. I love every minute of it!!! I'm even getting marginally good at ululating.
The food is aromatic, astounding, and abundant; the cakes are massive and lavishly decorated. Every woman there wears a beautiful ball gown, each one more beautiful than the next. And the detail to decorations make the reception settings magical.
All of the kids can hardly wait for one of my children to get married so that they can see a Jewish wedding.
They'll see one all right. It's just gonna be a long while before any of my kids decide to marry.
Siiiiigh.