Introduction:
Arab hospitality was known in the ancient times as one of the most generous human races, where generosity is imperative because they live in the desert, where resources are few, so they must cooperate with each other, If someone is visiting, they must host and feed them him for three days before even ask about the reason of visiting (Barnes, 2013), the sharing of food and drink is an important element of sustainability, and this applies to weddings as well, as we will illustrate in this paper.
Before embarking on the research, we must know what the meaning of sustainability is, according to the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (un, n.d.), according to UNESCO, four dimensions of sustainable development - society, environment, culture and economy - are intertwined, not separate (unesco, n.d.).
When you pay attention to the concept of sustainability and apply it to wedding parties, for example, there will inevitably be a focus on hunger as an example of sustainability, because hunger is linked to food, which is an essential thing in wedding parties.
In this research, we will discuss hospitality at Arab weddings and whether it supports sustainability, or does it not help the issue of sustainability.
Before the wedding:
Usually there are several mini parties before the wedding. An engagement party and a formal marriage party, all of which are different from the wedding. For example, the husband’s family requests to sit with the bride, so that the man can talk to his wife and get to know her quickly this is called (the legitimate view), and this view is only from the husband to his wife, and not the other way around, but if we want to achieve sustainable development here, we must achieve gender equality, and not commodify women. to plastic surgery until she finds acceptance from the man (Dias & Tania, 2020).
This is against sustainable development so that the husband is not viewed in the same way, and thus equality is not achieved, which is one of the goals of sustainability. Women must also ask to see men. After the two parties agree, there will be an official engagement party where the husband’s family comes to the wife’s family to ask for the girl’s hand. They are hosted in the wife’s family home, and a mini-hospitality and simple dinner are made to welcome the guests, gifts are presented to the wife and money is given to the wife and it is called (the dowry) here is another example that achieves sustainability, which is the achievement of quality and well-being for the wife, although there are those who consider money as a commodity for women (Lowes and Nunn, n.d.).
On the other hand, we see that there are exaggerations in the requests of some brides from the husband, as large sums are requested from some of the wives’ families, some families have reached to request impossible conditions for the young man (Akbari, 2011), and this does not achieve sustainability in terms of well-being, so yes now the wife is happy with money, but when it accumulates There will be no happiness after marriage, and when there is no happiness, there is no luxury.
During the party:
At different levels of living, wedding parties differ, but the Arab society is characterized by being highly social (Deaibes, 2018), Marriage is announced in the neighborhood in general, and the ceremony is attended by all the people of the neighborhood, so the hospitality is at the neighborhood level and not at the family level, and it is in a hall General and large, and this fact helps to develop sustainability in two ways, the first: the eradication of poverty, and this by integrating all segments of society with each other, and the participation of speech and minds helps to eliminate poverty, according to the United Nations, poverty is estimated at about 780 million poor people in the world (UNITED, n.d.), and when we spread the idea of community participation in weddings, we will directly help in integrating all layers of society, and the other side: eliminating hunger, where a hungry person comes and enters in many wedding occasions, marriages are many because of the population cluster within neighborhoods.
On the other hand, we find that some poor people, when they want to make a marriage, they borrow money to put a banquet in their marriage (AZIZ, 2015), which increases poverty, disrupts the concept of sustainability, and reinforces the problem more and more.
After the wedding:
When the marriage ends, on the second day a small party is held, often for family only, where the husband and his wife meet again to celebrate in private with their family, and usually the hospitality is in a place other than the home, such as a small hall that brings together the two families, and the wife wears a special and often traditional dress, This once again promotes equality between the rich and the poor. The dress is local and is simple, and in some families this celebration continues for three days, and they welcome guests and feeding them and perhaps housing them as well.
From another point of view, the exaggeration of the large number of these celebrations is considered a hindrance to sustainable development, as it puts a lot of pressure on the young man at the beginning of his married life, which reduces welfare and increases povertyMany young people continue to pay their marriage debts even after they have their children (Bakar, 2019), which deprives even children from enjoying life, and according to the definition of sustainability, it must meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.
(Byworth, 2019)
After a few days, the husband and wife go to their honeymoon, and they go to tourism in any country they prefer, Holiday tourism is a very important part of sustainability. Holiday tourism represents 28% of the number of British tourists for example and revives the economy in general (Middleton and Hawkins, 1998, p.68).
Conclusion:
We have seen how Arab hospitality is at weddings, and how sustainable development is achieved in some areas and not achieved in others, and we have clearly shown the mechanism of hospitality in detail from the beginning of the engagement to the honeymoon.
In my opinion, Arab weddings in general achieve sustainable development. The large number of wedding celebrations helps the growth of the economy in general. The hospitality industry in weddings is a very large industry, and the growth of the economy helps to achieve many other things in Sustainability is like luxury, eradicating hunger, eradicating poverty, and other things. In addition, Arab generosity in weddings helps the idea of community participation and cooperation of neighborhood people with each other and not separating the classes of society, which helps the concept of sustainability.
But we must look at Arab weddings carefully and carefully, as there are some things that greatly hinder sustainability. The large number of celebrations may put pressure on the young man at the beginning of his life, which disrupts well-being and increases poverty.
References:
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