English Catholic Community in Cambodia
Wedding in Siem Reap
15-17 November 2013
Every year there are a number of weddings in the English-speaking Catholic community, often with a foreign groom and a Cambodian bride. Two separate ceremonies are necessary: a civil, Buddhist ceremony to make the union valid in the eyes of the law, and then a Catholic ceremony to make the marriage valid under church law. Priests and ministers here cannot serve as the witness representative for both groups as they can in Western countries.
This weekend I had a wedding for an Australian man and his Cambodian fiancee. For this wedding there was an official church ceremony first in the parish church and then there were two more ceremonies, a traditional Cambodian wedding ceremony on Saturday morning and then a second religious service in the afternoon for the wedding guests who couldn't come for the earlier church service two weeks ago.
Friday
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Now newer, faster van services are competing with the more established larger coaches on some routes in Cambodia. Here two vans from the same company pull out after a rest stop. One van headed south toward Phnom Penh and the other north toward Siem Reap. |
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A variety of food vendors set up their carts and stalls near the hotels or restaurants that serve as rest stops for the coaches and the vans. This is the second rest stop of our six-hour trip, in Kampong Thom. |
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This vendor is selling pomelos, a large fruit with a taste and texture somewhat like grapefruit, and large platters of deep-fried insects. |
| On the other side of the hotel, some hotel staff were selling more prosaic hot food on the street. Here one could get rice and a topping dish of different meats and vegetables. |  |
Saturday Morning
There were two wedding ceremonies today at the Borei Angkor Resort. At 8:00 AM, there was a traditional Cambodian Buddhist ceremony, and then at 2:00 PM there was a Catholic blessing of the marriage.
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Before the morning traditional Cambodian service started, Joe posed for pictures with his mother and a brother. |
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The Cambodian wedding service always starts with a blessing by Buddhist monks. Five monks came to chant and bless the couple. Then they left and the ceremony proceeded for another 3.5 hours. |
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For these long Cambodian ceremonies, with many different elements and actors, a master of ceremonies is used to direct the proceedings. |
| A standard part of a traditional Khmer wedding ceremony is a comedy routine performed either by an individual or, like today, by a couple who ad lib jokes and comments for about twenty minutes. It was difficult for the English-speaking crowd who had little idea of what was being presented. |  |
| Here the wedding party pose with gifts that were presented to the parents of the bride and groom. That was the final stage of the morning ceremony except for more photographs. |  |
Saturday Afternoon
In the afternoon we had a religious ceremony to bless the marriage in the Catholic tradition, and then in the evening there was a reception and banquet.
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The wedding party had a dramatic change of outfits from what they wore in the morning, but multiple changes of clothes are part of a Cambodian wedding. Many changes of outfits and colors shows that the bride's family has money. |
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The Catholic ceremony was originally scheduled for 5:00 PM, immediately before an outdoor reception, but because was rain was forecast, the religious ceremony was moved to 2:00 PM. That gave me time to run over to the Catholic parish in Siem Reap to say hello to Fr. Stepanus. He was originally contacted to do the wedding but later we arranged that I would replace him. |
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The wedding reception began at 6:00 PM and featured two traditional classic Cambodian dances. I have seen many of these dances but this was the first time I saw one with an ice sculpture in the foreground. I'm sure that wasn't part of the classical tradition. |
| Before the banquet began, Joe and Kan spoke to the guests and then Kan sang a love song to Joe. |  |
Sunday
| For the four-hour Khmer ceremony on Saturday morning, this group of seven musicians played classical Khmer instruments and sang traditional wedding chants. The man with the microphone sang in a falsetto that would have made Frankie Valli (of the Four Seasons) proud. |  |
| The wedding and reception were held at the Borei Angkor Resort in Siem Reap, a five-star facility in the city center. Quite nice. When the couple invited me to witness their wedding, they arranged for me to stay at the sister hotel of the Borei Angkor because the resort was full but I ate meals at the resort. |  |
| The Cambodian people have a love affair with luxury woods, one of their greatest natural resources. A sign that you have "arrived" is to have lots of heavy wooden furniture, luxury wood paneled walls, etc. (In our Maryknoll house, my bathroom ceiling is luxury wood!) This Borei Angkor hotel lobby certainly reflects the country's obsession. |  |
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A mark of a five-star hotel are the extras provided. Here the resort hotel has an airport monitor, showing the arriving and departing air traffic at the international airport two or three miles up the road. |
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I could have charged my supper to the wedding bill at the hotel, but I thought I would save the couple a few bucks and walked down the street to this little open-air restaurant where I could eat my noodles and vegetables for two dollars as opposed to ten to fifteen dollars in the hotel dining room. |
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Siem Reap is a nice town in many ways although its quaintness has been eroded by the influx of tourists after international flights were allowed to the airport there. The Siem Reap River runs through the middle of the town and is a beautiful green space that any city would love to have. |
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