Sri Lanka is a developing country where there is a class of people who are not only extremely wealthy but determined to flaunt their wealth in the most ridiculously extravagant ways. The latest example of this kind of disgusting ostentation is a wedding that had 126 bridesmaids, 25 best men, 20 page boys and 23 flowers girls.
Here is a photo of the wedding party.
Why do this? Apparently because the couple wanted to break the previous record of 96 bridesmaids held by a Thai couple. So now they have earned the dubious honor of entering the Guinness Book of World Records, that compendium of silly records that is likely responsible for more waste of time, money, and energy than anything else.
These kinds of things are so pointless. All it takes is money and you can be sure that another idiot will come along willing to spend more money to break this stupid record.
Looking at that picture, part of me keeps expecting them to break out in a triumphant chorus from Carl Orff.
And I doubt the combined Guinness Book wastage comes anywhere near, say, the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Pierce:
Or, Your Mother Should Know.
I can only hope the money they spent went some way to providing business for people with far less material wealth, at something like decent pay. I’m sure I’m only dreaming, though.
I’m almost afraid to ask, but how did the parents of this couple make all that money in Ceylon? Were they in the tea business or what?
I don’t know. But they seem to have close connections with the president and in the corrupt world of Sri Lankan politics that usually opens the door to making huge sums of money by skimming money off the top of government contracts. To be fair, I don’t know that they did that. They may also be people who are simply idiots who spend far more than they can afford on their children’s weddings just to impress their family and friends. The disease of spending money you cannot afford on weddings is rampant in Sri Lanka.
Well, war, probably. Amirite?
I am reminded of the northern-northwest coast American Indian custom of the potlatch: a high-status, wealthy individual would hold the potlach and distribute his goods in an ostentatious display of wealth, with much feasting, dancing and ceremony. The potlatch-giver was then left with almost nothing but the reputation of having been wealthy enough to throw a good one.
At the turn of the previous century, whites simply could not understand this wasteful, bankrupting tribal partying, so they outlawed it. Of course, it still went on to some extent; anthropologists, curious as to why such a custom should persist, set to trying to explain it. What they came up with was that as wealth concentrated in a few individuals, the resources of the tribe became very unbalanced. With a potlatch, a man gained status but the resources of the tribe were redistributed through his magnanimity.
Now, if you look at this ostentatious wedding, who is really benefiting? Dressmakers, florists, caterers, shoe-makers, hairdressers, etc. etc. These are the people at the low end of the wage scale. Now, I am not saying that it is a good thing that so much wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, so much so that this wealth can be “thrown away” for no good purpose. But what I think is that these displays of wealth serve a similar purpose to the potlach, even if it doesn’t actually redistribute the wealth in such a way that society becomes rebalanced.
That’s interesting. I had not quite thought of it as a culturally-based redistributive mechanism.
I don’t think I even know that many people.
“the disease of spending more than you can afford on weddings is rampant” not just in Sri Lanka! And then after two or three years the couple divorce. Such a waste! But yes, it does redistribute money and create jobs, and it brings extended families together for a party.
Me, I’m earmarking a bunch of money for the family to throw me a big funeral so they can all get together and tell laughable stories about all the bizarre things I’ve said and done in my lifetime. At least they will know that I’m not going to change my mind in a few years and say, “Whoops, sorry, but this is not working out for me.”