Migrants Honour Tradition

Second Ceremony: Comorians Return From France To Island For 'Grand Marriage'

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It is wedding season in the Comoros, when the diaspora return to the tiny Indian Ocean islands for days-long celebrations that mark an essential rite of passage, the "grand mariage".

The elaborate, tradition-infused ceremonies, which can be held years after an initial religious wedding, are most often held in July and August, coinciding with the summer holidays in France, which has a significant community of Comorian migrants.

On a recent day in July, Badjanani Square in central Moroni – the capital of the mainly Muslim nation off East Africa – was packed with hundreds of people attending a prayer ceremony ahead of the "grand mariage" (French for "big wedding") of a couple based in the central French city of Le Mans.