The second half of the ceremony was the Jewish part. As you may probably guess, Ecuador doesn't have many Jews. Apparently there is a small community with a rabbi in Quito, but all the Jews that once lived in Cuenca are dead. I know that may sound terrible, but I say that with respect. I mean, I've done my research.
Carlos and I live across the street from the cemetery and there is a small Jewish section there with about 30 graves. Most of the deceased were born in Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century and the last burial here seemed to be in the 1990's. There is a Panama hat shop here that was owned by a German Jew (K. Dorfzaun), but apparently he died about two years ago and was buried in Quito.
But I digress.
Apparently one does not need a rabbi to have a Jewish wedding. Fortunately, my father is descended from the priestly tribe so he was able to preside over the Jewish part. There are seven blessing that are recited to the couple, which were read by not only my father, but our friends and family in Hebrew, English, and Spanish. Each blessing was done in conjunction with circling (traditionally the bride circles the groom seven times, symbolizing the creation of a family circle, but we each did three circles and the last one together).
After which, we drank some wine (red wine, which I managed not to spill on my dress).
The final blessing was the priestly blessing, which is done with a tallit wrapped around the couple.
And we finished up with the breaking of the glass (it's wrapped in a napkin so shards don't fly everywhere, and so you can't see that it's not actually a glass, usually a light bulb is used because it's easy to break, but in our case we used a Christmas ornament, a great way to intertwine the two religions).
And we were married! We then ran off for a few minutes alone before the party really started.
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