Cultural Exchange in Halle Saale, Germany

Last Friday the Excellence Center in Europe presented a cultural exchange that included Germans, refugees, and other immigrants as participants. Each cultural group presented the wedding customs and traditions that take place in Germany, Palestine, Jordan, Italy, and Nigeria.  Each participant had the chance to speak about weddings in his or her culture and to represent his or her country. The audience and other participants were fascinated and expressed their appreciation for this kind of meeting where it is possible to meet many different people and to learn about new cultures and traditions.

Nineteen year old Mohammed Al-Abularaheem from Syria described for the audience wedding customs in Syria: ” Weddings in Syria last three to four days. The bride and groom must invite at least 500 to 1,000 people to the wedding,and they must feed all of them food and some sweets”.  He added, “ It is very costly to get married in Syria. About 20,000 Euros are needed to marry, and, generally, the groom has to cover the expenses”.

Nilsen from Nigeria commented that “we have different traditions and which traditions you must adhere to depends mainly from which part of Nigeria you are from. Some people do get married in the church,  and they feed many people. Other people have small weddings.” He added, „There are more than 300 tribes in Nigeria, each tribe has its own variations of prominent wedding traditions. The most well-known tribes are the Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, so I will focus on their unique wedding traditions.”

Maria and Guenter from Germany told the audience that “weddings in Germany are much smaller than the other countries, such as Jordan, Palestine, Syria or Nigeria. In Germany people can get married without inviting anyone at all. It is up to the couple to decide that. They explained that it varies too from city to city, or region to region in Germany. In the south of Germany some people have their own special tradions in getting married.

Rafat Shantir,co-founder of the Excellence Center and its manager stated, „The mission of the Excellence Center in Europe in the city of Halle Saale is to bring  people from different cultures, backgrounds, education, and ages together in order to create cultural dialogue and exchange.“  He added, “The Excellence Center organizes and presents each month two meetings so that Germans, internationals, refugees, and immigrants are brought together to learn about each other and to understand that there different ways of doing things in each culture.“