I have never participated in a Jewish wedding before, and up until two weeks ago, when my friend Vanessa asked me to be a Huppa holder in her wedding, I didn’t even know what a Huppa was.
Traditionally, a Huppa is a draped cloth held over the couple during their marriage ceremony. It symbolizes the home that unites the couple in marriage. The four sides are open to welcome all the family and friends of the couple into their lives.
Vanessa and Jake’s Huppa was made of embroidered burgundy-colored cloth that was draped over four posts made of tall Birchwood tree trunks. Set in an old stone country manor in the middle of a beautiful forest bursting with fall foliage, the natural details added to the warmth of the event, and added an experience in my life that warmed my heart. Holding the Huppa, I had the strong sense that part of my role as a friend was to help them uphold the ideals and promises of their matrimony, that I was assigned to nurse the pains and celebrate the joys together with them, for life, somehow encasing their lives in the sanctity of the vows.
It was powerful, and touching. I was close enough to feel the nervous deep breaths, see the welling eyes and the loving curve of an otherwise undetected smile. More than anything, I felt the closeness of all our hearts in the marriage between two lovely people.
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