Caribbean wedding
The Caribbean wedding, a long celebration with rum cake, a church service and a family feast, shaped by African, European and Indian roots.
Also: West Indian wedding, Caribbean wedding
Caribbean weddings vary by island and by community. Many follow a church service with a feast, a dark rum fruit cake, speeches and dancing to calypso, reggae, soca or dancehall. In Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname, Indo-Caribbean weddings keep Hindu and Muslim rites, such as a matikor and mehndi night, brought by indentured workers in the nineteenth century. Some communities keep older customs from West Africa, and others invite the whole village. Many couples marry on a beach, and destination weddings are a large part of the tourist trade.
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean