ICU Karen Wedding

On Friday, Misa and I went with Claire and her husband to a Christian Karen wedding in Chiang Rai. We left Friday afternoon and spent the night in a village outside of the city of Chiang Rai. We ate a delicious Karen dinner before going into the city to explore the night bizarre, which was overall disappointing and nothing comparable to the markets of Chiang Mai. We went to bed early that night so we could wake up early to eat breakfast and attend the wedding ceremony.
That morning we got up and went to a family friend’s house for breakfast. He made us ‘half farang half Karen’ food which turned out to be toast and omelet. We ate and talked while the boys became enveloped with a small group of owls in a tree next to the house. A young boy walked up to the house with a BB gun and they all took shots at the owls. They finally hit one between the eyes and it fell down dead. They said they were going to eat it but when they plucked it the bird was so small it didn't seem worth it. They kept shooting at the other owls in the tree until they hit another. They brought it over and it wasn't quite dead yet. They messed around with it for a little before pinching its throat shut. It struggled and took a long time to die.
We left soon after to return to the house and dress for the ceremony. When we got there we took our seats in a back pew. The wedding was like a typical Christian wedding. There were flower girls, and groomsmen. The bride wore the clothing of a married Karen woman with a veil. The ceremony was in both Karen and Thai. It was explained to me that the groom did not speak Karen and that the family hade taught him how to say ‘I do’ and nudged him at the appropriate time to say it. There was lots of singing, various friends and family seemed to have prepared songs and music especially for the ceremony.
After it was over we were invited back to the bride’s home to eat. We had more delicious Karen food, took some pictures, and then left for the long drive home to Chiang Rai. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad to have been able to have the cultural experience.