Tafuliae | bride price
Margaret: Normally the groom's family prepare the shell and they come and exchange it for the bride. And the bride's family normally prepare food and they exchange for the shell. So, I'll tell you a bit more about how a bride in Langa Langa is dressed for her wedding.
When my daughter gets married, this is how I will dress her for her wedding ceremony. So, I put her in this one, is like a wedding dress, it's called Sao Sako. So, she comes with all these beads and all that and she got all her Launi | expensive jewellery which is all the decorations that comes with it, and a fofodara | headpiece. And then there's a very important bit that the parents give to the daughter when she goes, they make a crown of shell for her, but the crown is made up of lots of money, we put on the crown, and that's for her to go and establish her home with it. Whatever money is put there from the parents.
And also every Langa Langa girl, when they are walking out from their parents’ house to the husband's house, parents give her a coconut fruit that's already got leaves and starting to bloom to go with. And normally on the leaves, they put lots of money on the leaves as well, because that's for her to start her home.
Traditionally, the coconut, this bride is this my daughter is taking this coconut to your home. And the aim is for her to be fruitful, to go and produce children for the husband's family and to make their tribe big. And that's the success that exchange for the bride price.
During the bride price, there is a very special tafuliae, which is called Wyluma. And this is for a special one, only one that's made. And it's the biggest, the longest and biggest, and it's got the biggest red in the middle. And the meaning of that is for the payment for the mother of the bride saying thank you to the mother of the bride. It's a description payment for the uterus that this child has grown in and become a beautiful girl that we have received. So that’s just saying thank you to the mother—the mother is acknowledged as well during the bride price.
