Lifestyle : Marriage

The Akha are a meticulous tribe for living their lives, and adhere to auspicious days for performing ceremonies. In the case of a bad day or a bad month there will not be performed any ceremonies for finding a spouse. The Akha men can marry their beloved woman even though they have just met each other only one time. The Akha have a principle for choosing their spouse which is a must do and it is a really important one too. They have to ask for each others blood relations and clans to find out whether they have the same roots or not. If they have the same roots, it is impossible for them to marry one another. However, if there is 7 generations or more to a common root it is still possible for them to marry. Furthermore, they have to ask for each others birthdays. There are some things about the birthdays that are very important. The Akha are careful if a man have birthday on the tiger day and the women have birthday on the pig day. If this situation happens, there won't be a marriage between the two of them because it is related to the biting day in the Akha belief. Tigers like to eat pig. Thus, the couple will not be happy in their married life. However, there are still some examples of marriage in this situation. It is believed that if a man bites the woman, she will run away and back to her own house. On the other hand, if the woman was born on the tiger day and the man was born on the pig day, then marriage is severely not allowed, because if the woman is the one who bites, then there is no place for the man to run away to. The woman comes to the home of the man that she is marrying, and therefore he has nowhere else to run to. From this, we can see that the Akha are very delicate in choosing their spouse, which is influenced by their beliefs that has been passed through generations. In the case that a couple can not have a son, the man have to marry again, so that he can have a son to continue the clan in the future. If a man and a woman decides to marry one another, the respectable family members from the man's side will go and ask for the woman from the woman's parents. In the case that they can make a deal, the groom will take the woman to his own house and she will stay with his relatives for one night. The Akha wedding will be celebrated for 3 days. On the wedding day, there will be a “Yair Mor” (an elderly person who knows how to perform the ceremony) which is a person who perform the wedding ceremony before the bride move in to the village. This person will help to clean the bride's body and the elderly people will hit the roof of the groom's house with sticks, because it is believed that this will get the bride's spirit to move into the house. When the bride and the groom have been taken into the house, the elder people will circle an egg around their bodies for 3 rounds, being careful not letting the egg fall down, because it is believed that if the egg falls down and breaks, the couple are not going to have any children and will not get merit. This ceremeony is the most important one. After that, one chicken will be slaughtered and the its legs, calfs, head, heart, sweet filling, rump and a piece of meat are cut off and cooked for the groom and the bride. It is known as the first meal for the couple, and they have to eat it up, because whether the couple will have kids or not and whether the kids will be strong and healthy or not, all depends on this ceremony. Moreover, a pig is slaughtered and opened to see the heart and the liver to give a prediction if the babies are going to be boys or girls and the appearances of the babies. The following day the woman have to wake up early to do the housework like fetch water and cooking. Then the elderly people will be invited to eat at the groom's place and they will sing songs to bless the groom and the bride. In the evening they will drink liquor. The bride and the groom have to hold their glasses and ask for the elderly people to pour them the liquor. It is like asking for merit from the elder people. On the 3 rd day, the bride has to go and get red bananas (Na Ngay) in the forest. She will burn the banana stalk for the guests to eat. A chicken will be slaughtered to treat the elderly, and they will bless the bride and the groom. Additionally, the guests apply the lampblack on their hands. The guests at the wedding will apply vegetable oil on their hands and get the lampblack from the bottom of the pots and apply it to each other. They will also apply it on the couple. It is a kind of a patience test before the bride and the groom are going to live together.

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