Pohnpeian Weddings

On Sunday my host sister and her husband got married. He was already her husband by Pohnpeian standards. Sort of. The whole thing is kind of confusing, but I’ll try to explain based on what I’ve seen in my village. Things vary a lot on different parts of the island, so this post probably doesn’t represent Pohnpeian culture as a whole.

Generally, when a relationship becomes public (when the parents find out about it), a traditional Pohnpeian “wedding” takes place. The wedding is just a sakau ceremony between the families. Then usually the woman goes to live with the husband’s family (although sometimes the man moves instead – of my nohno’s five married daughters, only one lives away from her family compound). 

Since the arrival of Christianity, however, couples need to have a second wedding in the church. (One woman translated the traditional Pohnpeian ceremony as an “engagement” in English, but most people translated it as a marriage.) This second wedding isn’t rushed at all – it happens whenever the couple gets around to it. Often, the church wedding happens several years later after the couple has started a family and built their own house.

So anyway, congratulations to Padian and Jetny! (I had been putting the pressure on them to get married before I left Pohnpei .)

The family