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The wedding procession, the cutting of the cake and Kate and William among the guests: inside the royal wedding of Hussein of Jordan

«From north to south all the people participate in your joy
The young people rejoice at your wedding, dear Prince Hussein
Let’s go, let’s go to Amman and celebrate our beloved prince.”
Rami Khaled, a Jordanian traditional music singer.

When I arrived in Petra a few days ago, I found waiting for me a gigantic Bedouin tent placed right next to the most famous archaeological site in Jordan. A little later, in front of this prodigy of black wool with a few white stripes, a troop of Bedouins arrives at a gallop and starts the music and dance. Same thing in Amman, where one evening last week, on the by now very busy Rainbow street, the waiters of a bar leave the tables and take to the street to improvise the dabkeh, the rhythmic dance that men do in a row, holding hands to the sound of percussion instruments and bagpipes. The Christian Madaba, the cities of the north and the more isolated villages of the desert are no less. Everywhere flags, banners and music, and a ferment that crosses Jordan from north to south.

For curious tourists, the Jordanians point to a blow-up portraying the couple, Rajwa and Hussein. She, a 29-year-old Saudi, he, a 28-year-old heir to the throne of Jordan, are the portrait of happiness, as well as beauty and modernity. The new icons of this country where tradition coexists perfectly with modernity seem to have awakened the spirit of belonging and identity.

Already from the morning of Thursday 1 June, wedding day, on the desert highway, which runs from the Red Sea to Amman, there are countless white minivans heading to the capital. Looking at them, it seems to hear the blaring music that resonates inside the passenger compartments and that the passengers accompany by clapping their hands and waving to passers-by.

That of Prince Hussein, the protagonist of the numerous songs written for the occasion, is the first royal wedding of a Hashemite heir to the throne and certainly the most sumptuous for many years. The last, in fact, dates back to 1993, when his mother Queen Rania and his father King Abdullah II were married, but he was not yet crown prince. Hussein I sat on the throne and the designated heir was Prince Hassan, brother of the king. Many things have changed since then and today the future of Jordan is destined for the hands of this boy, a former captain of the Jordanian Arab armed forces, a graduate of the Sandhurst Military Academy (as Prince William, expected to marry Princess Catherine) and at Georgetown University in Washington. He has to his credit various interventions at the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, a good experience of international diplomatic missions alongside his father, he is brilliant, sporty, loved by the people and since 2004 destined to receive the scepter of the country instead of his uncle Hamzah, son of his grandfather Hussein and former Queen Noor. Active on social (@alhusseinjo)is perfectly at ease in jeans or with an elegant one abayas transparent open on dishdasha white, as in official ceremonies. Since last August 17, 2022 he has been officially engaged to Rajwa Saif, a beautiful architect linked by his mother to the Saudi royal family.

The wedding day is a national holiday, and whoever can’t go to Amman is glued to the TV. For lunch I stop at Ramzi’s, a few kilometers from the capital. With his wife and daughters we too follow the envoys live in the cities and villages where men dance and sing in keffiyeh white and red, the one worn by men of the royal family, e women in madragathe dress embroidered with motifs that change according to the tribe to which they belong. On the screens also scroll the images of the eve party, reserved for the men guests of the sovereign for the ceremony during which he offered a very excited Prince Hussein the sword that the Hashemite sovereigns are handed down from father to son.

Getting around in Amman is not easy: for days we have received information on detours along the route of the “red procession” that crossed the whole city. Red like the color of the motorcycles and cars that make it up, like the decorations on the dress of the royal guards, like the triangle of the Jordanian flag on which the white seven-pointed star dominates, like the squares of the keffiyeh real, which alternate with the white ones.

The procession left at 3 pm local time (2 pm in Italy) from the Zahran palace, residence of the groom’s great-grandmother, the one where the henna ceremony organized by Queen Rania for her future daughter-in-law was also held last week and where the sovereign held the grand banquet for guests on Wednesday evening. From here, as tradition dictates, after the signing of the marriage contract, the spouses left in procession passing through the “circles”, that is, the roundabouts that trace the backbone of Amman to reach the palace of Al Husseiniya, where the offices of the sovereign and the prince are also located and where tonight they will receive the approximately two thousand guests.

Along the way the crowds thronged for hours, while from the decorated boxes the music gives depth to the traditional repertoire to which are added the new compositions dedicated to Prince Hussein. Every now and then there are choirs praising “with heart and soul we are with you, Hussein”. The logo of the event dominates everywhere. It is an elegant and essential calligraphic motif, formed by the union of four letters, the N, the F, the R and the H, reads Nafrah and exhorts to celebrate Rajaw and Hussein. To whom, of course, an exclusive monogram has been dedicated which already decorates T-shirts, flags and is destined to become one of the most requested souvenirs by tourists. Those who are here have no doubts: they will never forget this trip.

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

Jordan Pix/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

Jordan Pix/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

Jordan Pix/Getty Images

(Photo by Handout – Royal Hashemite Court/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

(Photo by Handout – Royal Hashemite Court/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

(Photo by Hashmeti Kingdom of Jordan/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

(Photo by Hashmeti Kingdom of Jordan/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

KHALIL MAZRAAWI/Getty Images

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and Rajwa al Saif

Abd Rabbo Ammar/ABACA / ipa-agency.net

Source: Vanity Fair

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