NUBIAN WEDDING / BRIDE AND GROOM PROCESSIONS

Recorded in Kom Ombo area in Upper Egypt. Read, watch and listen more at Lake Nasser divided Nubia into two parts. One hundred and twenty thousand people were resettled. At the concrete estates built by the state, pagan ceremonies and worship of river spirits take on new forms. In the light of the full moon, a group of women accompanied by male musicians gathered in front of the bride’s house. The young woman, entirely covered with henna, was greeted with loud ululations, and the colourful march was launched along the sand-covered lanes generating clouds of dust. Rhythms beaten vigorously on tar drums, call-response songs, shouts praising the virtues of the bride and members of her family – the enthusiastic procession was slowly approaching its goal. At the irrigation canal, everyone took a handful of prepared food from bowls carried by the older women on their heads and threw it into the water as an offering to spirits. On th