Ankore Culture: How Brides Spent Their HoneyMoon!

How Brides Spent Their HoneyMoon.

In the past, the Ankole bride was to stay indoors for about six months according to culture.

After the traditional wedding, a relative was assigned the task of escorting her to the new home, and after five days she had to leave her in the hands of her in-laws. 

During the honeymoon, the bride was fed on a milk diet and also bathed separately from other people from a special fenced off area where she was given a steam bath with scented herbs.  After, they had to apply scented ghee (obutahe)on her to make her skin smooth.

During this period, her husband’s relatives also came along with gifts to introduce themselves and also to become acquainted with her.

Since the months were long, in order to kill the boredom, the bride spent her time weaving baskets, making ghee and with some other light chores while her husband went on with his day-to-day duties and only came back in the evening to fulfill his marital obligations.

In all those months the bride remained veiled even before her husband and it was only after an event called okutasya ekihara, that she was unveiled and her husband got to see her properly, even though he could have seen her while they slept at night.

After that day, the title of a  bride would be dropped and she was expected to start carrying out her normal marital chores, which had been previously done by her female in-laws.