A Pentecostal Church in South Africa celebrates Easter with mass wedding ceremonies for around 1,500 couples many of whom entered into polygamous marriages.
The International Pentecost Holiness Church said mass wedding are part of its Easter festivities, and of polygamy has been incorporated with the church.
The event, which saw some men marry multiple wives simultaneously, was the longest by far by the church.
Other groom also married multiple brides at same time.
“Polygamy is not only embedded but held in high regard in the church”, the spokesperson of the church”, Vusi Ndala said.
It is an African-initiated church, meaning, it was funded by African rather than foreign missionaries, and blends Pentecost beliefs with local traditions.
The Church has held mass weddings before, including 2023 when around 400 couples or bridal parties tied the knot. It says this year’s event was its longest by far.
Ndala said the large number of people being married this year was because of the large number of men marrying more than one wife at a time. In some cases, groom brought their current wife/wives or wife/wives to-be with them for their marriage.
The weddings were held at the church’s ir new marriage. The weddings held at the church’s headquarters, a huge dorne-shape building in the town of Heldelberg,, near Johannesburg, that can seat 6,000 people.
The congregants who were being married awaited in long white tents set up in open fields next to the church building, where they were given bridal flowers bridal flowers, food packs and water.
They the filed the church building in long queues, the woman wearing white bridal gowns and many of the men in matching white suits and red ties.
Polygamy is legal in South Africa If the union is registered as a customary marriage.
-9News Nigeria.
