Weddings and other hollidays

David and Veronica were married last weekend. In Bolivia, church ministers and priests do not have any civil authority to marry and so all couples have to present themselves to a justice of the peace to be officially wed. Here, the custom is to have the civil ceremony a day before the church wedding, the church service then being a ceremony of seeking God's blessing on the already established union. So last Friday we went to Veronica's house where the justice of the peace read the Bolivian laws concerning marriage, and David and Veronica had to sign in the civil registry along with witnesses who confirm their identities and seriousness in regard to marriage. (I'm having a hard time wording this in English) They were then presented the certificates of marriage and the official Bolivian Family Registry. I found it interesting that the judge read aloud the laws regarding marriage.
Saturday night was the church wedding with the traditional gown, formal attire. They had a ring bearer and a little boy who carried a new Bible which was to be their family Bible. The ceremony was cited for 7:00. It began at 9 :00 with the arrival of the bride. She was beautiful and David was beaming with pride and joy at her all of the time.
Reception followed in a lovely setting - a huge thatched patio decorated with lovely white streamers and flowers. Not too much different than an American wedding reception.

Other holidays - it seems that American traditions creep into every corner of the world. With Pepsi and Coca Cola worldwide, why not other money- making holidays? So last night we had Halloween in our condominium. The children of the area had a little party in the community playground here and then made their way around the neighborhood calling 'trick or treat' or in Spanish calling for dulcies (candies) The costumes were the same, witches, pirates, fairies, as were the smiles as they received candies in their orange plastic pumkins. How I missed Valerie and Novali on this special night.