Wij houden van Oranje

Ruzie over de kleur van bloemen ruïneert een bruiloft:

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2006/11/orange_color_ru.php

Zahleh- A wedding celebration has ended in a fistfight between the families of the groom and the bride over orange flower decorations, Al Akhbar newspaper reported Tuesday.

It said that when the bride's parents arrived at the church in the town of Rhit in Zahleh, east of Lebanon, they were shocked to see the altar and benches decorated with orange flowers.

Orange is the symbol of Christian General Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, an ally of the pro-Syrian Hezbollah organization.

The newspaper said that the groom's father, who is a supporter of Aoun, wanted the decoration to represent the group's color code.

It said the bride's parents, who are followers of a movement that belongs to the anti-Syrian ruling majority, were angered by the daring move. The paper did not say to which group the bride's parents belonged.

It said priests worked hard to settle the dispute and church ceremonies went ahead despite the "tense climate."

However, the "greatest catastrophe" was reported at the restaurant in the nearby town of Anjar where orange flowers dominated the scene, the newspaper said.

It said the bride's parents, who hadn't overcome their first chock, refused to enter the dinner hall.

It said fruitless mediations to reconcile the two families ended in a fistfight, where insults were traded and flying chairs were showered at each other, according to Al Akhbar.

The daily said army troops stepped in to disperse the crowd.

The story ended when the groom tucked his bride in a car and sped off to escape their parents' political wrangling, it said.