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Rum-soaked black cake, Jamaica's old cake processions, Trinidad's Hindu matikor night and more. Caribbean wedding traditions island by island.
Caribbean wedding traditions blend African, European, Indian, Chinese and Indigenous roots, and they differ from island to island. The best known is black cake: a dark, rum-soaked fruit cake served at weddings in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Others include Jamaica's old village cake processions, the Indo-Caribbean matikor night before a Hindu wedding, and the church or civil ceremony most couples still hold. Here is what each looks like and where it comes from.
If one thing unites Caribbean weddings, it is black cake. According to Wikipedia's entry on rum cake, black cake is traditionally associated with Christmas and weddings in Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Dried fruit such as raisins and prunes is soaked in rum or cherry brandy, often for months, then baked into a batter darkened with "browning", a bittersweet burnt-sugar caramel.
Older Jamaican weddings were community events. A Jamaica Gleaner history of old-time weddings describes a booth built the night before from posts and coconut boughs, young women in white carrying the cakes in procession through the village, and the main cake covered in white cloth until a "bidding" ceremony, where guests put money on a plate to see it unveiled. A "wedden godmadda" dressed the bride and arranged the tables, and a "wedden godfadda" ran the reception.
Trinidad and Tobago has both Christian and Hindu wedding traditions. Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago arrived with Indian indentured labourers in the 19th century, and its wedding rites have been adapted over generations.
Guyana, on the South American mainland, shares black cake with Jamaica and Trinidad, and has its own Indo-Caribbean Hindu weddings. Across the region, families of many different heritages and churches add their own customs.
Order or bake black cake early. Because the fruit is soaked for a long time, give whoever is making it plenty of notice. If a relative is baking, ask them before you book a cake maker.
A dark fruit cake made with dried fruit soaked in rum or cherry brandy, often for months, and coloured with browning, a burnt-sugar caramel. It is the traditional wedding and Christmas cake in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
A women-only ritual held before a Hindu wedding in Trinidad and Tobago, with drumming, singing and dancing. It developed among Indo-Caribbean communities.
It varies. Many families soak fruit for weeks or months. There is no single rule.
Some do. Indo-Caribbean Hindu weddings often include several pre-wedding nights, and couples of mixed heritage may hold both a religious and a cultural celebration.
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