Wedding Traditions in India

Contents

Indian marriage has a feature that distinguishes it from others - they form a young married couple not young, but the parents of the groom. They choose a future wife for their son, are negotiating with her parents about the upcoming wedding. A girl may not know her betrothed at all, but she can only submit to her parental will. This tradition was formed several millennia ago, but has not changed since then, despite the large number of castes and cultures in India..

Engagement - Ashir Wad

According to tradition, in India, before appointing a wedding, the parents of the young carefully study their horoscopes, choose the optimal date for this event, and future relatives are invited to the wedding.

After the parents have agreed on a wedding, a meeting is organized for the young, or rather, two meetings — first at the bride’s house and then at the groom’s. These meetings are called in India. «ashir wad». Parents bless the marriage, engagement is made. According to the wedding traditions of India, the newlyweds prepare gifts for each other, and their parents and closest relatives give them generously. About two months pass from engagement to the wedding.

Traditions on the eve of the wedding day

The variety of wedding traditions is impressive: each custom has its own meaning and is accompanied by certain actions. The beauty of Indian songs, dances, the rustle of fabrics, the abundance of flowers and incense, exquisite national dishes - Indians spare no money and effort to organize a celebration.

Meeting with guests

A wedding in India is a special celebration, they prepare for it for a long time and spend a lot of money. If the family is well off, 15 to 20 thousand dollars are spent on the wedding. 700-800 guests are invited to provide accommodation, as well as refreshments for many days, because the wedding with all the preludes lasts more than a week.

According to a long tradition, four days before the wedding, all of her relatives come home to the girl, build a wedding canopy in the courtyard, decorated with garlands of flowers, coconuts, bananas, bright lights. Inhabitants of India call such a canopy «pandal». In the middle of the canopy a large bowl of rice is set up, a large coconut palm flower is placed on top of the rice - a symbol of happiness, lights are burning around the bowl.

Mindy Bachelorette Party

Ceremony «mindy» involves decorating the bride’s hands and feet with henna with a national ornament. According to the wedding tradition in India, patterns are applied to girls on the palms and above, covering the hands to the elbow. As a result, something like peculiar gloves looms. After that, gold rings and bracelets are put on the girl’s hands. Hands and feet were not chosen by chance: the lines of the person’s fate are drawn on the hands, and all seven chakras are reflected on the hands and feet. How it looks, shown in the photo.

Relatives, girlfriends of the girl try to make the wedding patterns as dark as possible: according to tradition, it is believed that then the future husband will love her more. The procedure lasts almost all day: during the painting of the bride, young girls and experienced women talk with her about the promise of marriage, how to behave with her future husband, how to build a happy family. Therefore, it is believed that the more complex the drawing, the more time it was completed, the more the bride learned the secrets of married life.

According to Indian traditions, it is no longer appropriate for the bride with the patterns to leave the house before the wedding, her home is decorated with bright festive garlands of flowers, light bulbs, foil. After the marriage, the young wife does not do any homework until the patterns come off completely.

How is the Mindi drawing done, see the video:

Sanjit Pre-Wedding Dinner

There is a tradition among the inhabitants of India: for fifteen days before the beginning of the wedding, the Indians conduct a ritual of worship of Ganesha, the god of wealth and abundance. Representatives of both families ask Ganesha to contribute to the wedding, remove all obstacles to it..

Sanjit is a purely female pre-wedding ceremony, one of the most joyful and fun in India. Hospitable women from the bride's family invite women from the groom to dinner. The whole friendly company sings, dances, toasts wishes the family happiness and well-being of the bride. The festive table prepared by the bride's relatives is replete with delicious dishes. Dinner lasts a long time, women have fun.

Gaye Cold ceremony

This tradition of praising the yellow color, which in India is considered a symbol of the sun, denotes marital fidelity. It starts at the groom's house: the ceremony participants paint their foreheads with yellow paint, and then sprinkle each other with yellow powder. After that, you must inform the deceased relatives that their descendant will marry. This is done by the father of the groom, listing all ancestors, as if inviting them to witness a significant event.

After completing the ceremony at the young man’s house, the whole procession goes to the girl’s house, where «gaye holud» repeated first.

wedding ceremony

The wedding itself according to Indian canons and traditions is incredibly beautiful. A fairy tale that comes to life before our eyes makes even the hearts of those who have not believed in miracles for a long time tremble. Beautiful young people, a white horse, as a fulfillment of a girl’s dream, and much more. This is how the Indian wedding goes..

Arrival of the groom

Every girl’s dream is narrowed on a white horse! According to the wedding tradition, a bridegroom comes to his beloved in India - on a white horse decorated with red and yellow garlands. Accompanied by a witness, guests, musicians with loud songs, dances, the groom arrives home to the girl. Only men meet him - father and uncle of the bride, all women run away from the road so as not to catch the groom's eye, this is considered a bad omen.

The younger brother of the bride is given the honor of meeting the groom at the very gates. By tradition, he washes his feet, kisses him as a relative.

Shubho drishti - the very first glance

The wedding in India begins in the evening at the girl’s house. To perform the ceremony, according to tradition, a special tent is being built. It is covered with an awning, four palm trees are placed in the corners. The tent is decorated with fresh fragrant flowers, mainly yellow tones.

The groom, standing on a stone, waits until they carry out a wooden palanquin with his narrowed. Porters carry the bride seven times around the groom and pose. Guests ask a guy and a girl to look at each other, that is, to make a wedding ceremony shubho drishti - first look.

Wedding

According to all traditions, weddings in India are performed on an empty stomach; young people are forbidden to eat anything until the end of the ceremony.

A small wedding temple is being built for the wedding «lead» of five bamboo sticks that are covered with an awning on top. Inside the temple, a fire is lit. One end of the bride's sari is tied to the groom's sash to unite them forever. Newlyweds sit near the fire.

A brahman (priest) reads prayers, sings sacred mantras, gives a word to the young to take an oath, after which he binds the hands of a young couple with a wedding garland of flowers, connecting their souls forever for all seven generations. According to tradition, the newlyweds go around the fire seven times. From now on, the groom considers the girl his wife, which is confirmed by applying red paint to her forehead and parting. Indian people call red parting «sindur».

Bozargan celebration

After the wedding, all guests are sent to a special room - bozargan, where they themselves arrange a funny wedding spectacle with peculiar Indian dances, songs, which lasts until the morning.

At the end of the wedding fun, the young still remain to spend the night at the bride’s house, according to the tradition of the young, they are laid to sleep in different rooms.

Escort a young wife to her husband’s house

On the morning of the second day, the guests lead the newlyweds, who are still wearing wedding dresses, home to their husband, where the parents once again bless the young, give them gifts. On the second day of the wedding, no events take place, everyone is resting after yesterday's holiday.

According to tradition, in India, a young wife can return home to her parents only after a month, make their first visit.

Arrival at the house of the husband of the wife’s relatives

Having relaxed after the wedding, on the third day, the relatives of the young wife traditionally come with gifts to their husband’s home, where a festive table has already been laid for them and wedding entertainment awaits them again.

What is given according to tradition??

As a wedding gift from relatives, the inhabitants of India willingly accept gold items, household appliances, mobile phones, kitchen utensils, beautiful paintings, figurines, watches, money. The amount of money must be odd, for example, not 200 rupees, but 205. In India, there is a tradition that an odd number will bring them luck and prosperity.

The closer the family ties, the more elegant the wedding present will be. Gifts are packed in paper. «happy» colors - yellow, red, green. When guests are young, they never open gifts. Among the inhabitants of India it is considered indecent to give alcoholic beverages, as well as products from bovine and pig skin.

Image of indian bride and groom

Indian brides are extremely beautiful, their outfits are very rich. According to tradition, a wedding sari in India is sewn of cotton, silk, chiffon in various shades of red or golden. From ancient times, the Indians have a red color symbolizes purity, innocence. Indians consider white to be mournful.

The bride’s sari is decorated with elegant embroidery, fringe, rhinestones, luxurious accessories. Supports a wedding sari golden belt. A blouse is sewn either simple, the color of a sari, or golden, from brocade. It is also decorated with embroidery, beads..

On the girl’s neck is a gold necklace, inherited from mother to daughter. The bride is also decorated with gold earrings, bracelets on her arms and legs. Bracelets come with ornaments, enamel, carving. Jewelry for a wedding in India is selected expensive, jewelry is rarely used.

By all traditions, the Indian bride has one distinctive wedding decoration - a large earring in the wing of the nose, from which a chain stretches to the ear, as shown in the photo.

Adhering to an ancient tradition, a young girl is first painted with henna bindi at the wedding — a red dot on her forehead, symbolizing a married woman in India. Bindi is of various shapes - round, oval and even triangular. Wedding makeup emphasizes the special depth of the girl’s eyes, her eyebrows with well-defined hairs.

Hair is traditionally styled with a beautiful wedding hairstyle, decorated with flowers and gold products. Punjabi girls and women are extremely modest and shy, their hair is constantly collected, among them it is considered improper to walk with loose hair. In India, only girls of easy virtue or a wife alone with her husband can afford this..

The groom in India also looks very elegant. According to tradition, his tight pants and a white and red wedding coat are embroidered with gold embroidery. Belts his beautiful red sash. On his feet are shoes with bent toes embroidered with beads. The head is crowned with a wedding turban made of bright fabric. All this is embroidered with beads, beads, embroidery, glistens and shimmers in the sun. In some parts of India, it has long been a tradition to half-cover the face of the groom with pendants made of beads or flowers..

An Indian wedding is not just a holiday or tradition, it is a merger of two large families, therefore they celebrate it with special splendor, observing a huge number of wedding rituals. Studying them all is not so simple. In the video below, you can admire the beauty of an Indian wedding:

If you are interested in information about wedding traditions in India, share your impressions and feedback in the comments..

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