The Grand Marriage (Aanda) last for 9 days. It consists of different types of activities accompnied by Feasts, music, eating, drinking and spending lots of money.

The Grand marriage requires nothing but lots of money, efforts, energy and of course a long preparation, ( Money, Money and more money to be spent). What else could make a Wedding Vivacious and sparkling than the money.

Marriage customs vary from island to island, but the unique traditional custom is the Grand Marriage, which is still practiced in Grande Comore. It is an immense overblown, out of proportion Wedding.

The Grand Marriage requires considerable number of years of carefiul preparation and expensive planning as well as good organisation to pull it off.

Economic factors, however, have dictated that doing the Grand Marriage is not as popular as it was in the past, simply because only few men can afford to foot the bill. The amount of money to be spent on the Grand Marriage normally takes the groom his entire working life to save up. It often causes a severe hardship for both families and the couple after the Grand Marriage completed.

People feel that expectations,wishes, fulfilments and out-doing each other have to be met. TH e Comorian Wedding has distinctive practices, which differs from other weddings around the world especially in the spending money factor though the Grand Marriage shares and observe some similar practices with other weddings in many countries.

One may wonder what the purpose of the Grand Marriage and why the Comorian people still practice and hold such traditions so dearly. Well, the Grand Marriage entitles the groom to wear a special Wrap known in the local language as M’haruma on his shoulders. This special Wrap and the Grand marriage owns him the title of M'rumbaba, which means Grand Notable French, or a Distinguished and Significant person, or simply Sir in English. It's not permissible for one to wear Mharuma if he did not go through the Grand marriage.

Each Village has an outdoor council area known as Bangwe marked with two high gateways. This is where every major decision concerning life in the villages is usually executed. Briefly this place (Bangwe) can be defined as an olden day parliament. Only men who have done the Grand Marriage may participate in the councils. Men, women, youths and those who can not afford to do the Grande Marriage are excluded from these councils of decision making.

We believe we have covered every aspect of the Grand Marriage, somehow every visitor of this Web Site either Comorian or not will learn a lot about the Comorian Wedding and recognize its value among many Comorians. We are hoping that our audience will appreciate the level of efforts and attempts made by the editors of this Site to bring an insight of the Comorian Grand Marriage.

Years or months before the wedding, certain activities must take place before the actual Wedding. The purpose of these activities is to hint members of the public about one's intention of doing the big wedding one day in the near future.

Of course before making the official announcement when the Wedding will take place, members of the bride family and groom would meet separately to discuss all activities of the wedding within the period of 9 days duration.

Let's begin by explaining how to find a bride for the Grand marriage.

The most common method of finding a bride for this kind of Marriage is through arranged marriages. This is the most favourable way for many parents when choosing a husband for their lovely daughters. Many times girls are coerced or compelled to marry someone against their will. There is a lot of pressure and responsibility upon them to obey their family. Taking such a decision and proceeding without the consent or opinion of the young lady is quite a restless situation to imagine or even try to put into context. She would be perhaps married either by a stranger; a man twice her age or even one who is in another marital relationship. Do parents really ever envisage any problems forcing their prized young lady, whom they love so dearly to marry someone against their will? It is a monumental issue, which provoke much debate in many societies around the world. However many other marriages in Comoros are arranged with the consent of the two individuals who have chosen each other.

Many people of course may find this practice exteremely stiff to fit in with modern day living. However let's not be too judgemental as the Comorian are not the only people who originated and formulated these antique customs. Forced marriage practice has it's own roots through many centuries and it is been applied by many people in different parts of the world. Arranged marriage is beneficial when the two parties involved consent to it.

www.bangazoselea-surleweb.org , has the pleasure to present to it's audiance the Comorian Grand Marriage.

Many thanks for your cooperation.