Indian Weddings

As many of you already know the traditional East Indian weddings are very different from the traditional Christian weddings. So here I intend to share a little bit about my cultural heritage. Arranged marriages are far more common in India than love marriages. However, many parents are recently being a little more open minded about their children finding their own soul mates. Weddings need to be planned far in advance to be able to get the bookings for a banquet and many of the other little things required to make a wedding special. In India we have celebrations that lead up to the wedding.

Photo by Akanksha Khanna

To begin, we hold a prayer before starting any of the other wedding celebrations. The purpose of this prayer is to seek the blessing of our god and request that the wedding preparations are successful. Before taking any big step or change in our life we always seek the blessing of all of our Gods. For my sister's wedding we invited all of our family as well as the family of the groom's side to a temple to worship the God.

Photo by Akanksha Khanna

A few days before the wedding we held a small cocktail party to start up the celebrations of the wedding. In this both sides of the family exchange gifts to the close relatives of the family. Both sides of the family exchanged jewellery between the immediate families and gave cash and clothing to all the other members.

Photo by Akanksha Khanna

The night before the wedding all family and relatives go to the bride's house and the groom's side goes to the groom's house to apply henna. The application of henna is a very sacred tradition in Hindu weddings. The first dot of henna is applied by the mother-in-law on the bride. However, we did not completely follow this tradition but the henna was brought to the house by the mother-in-law to apply on the bride. The longer the henna is left on the hand the darker the design gets. The darkening of the henna is typically a sign of good luck. Furthermore, we believe that the dark henna on a bride is a sign that she will be loved by her husband and his family. Another tradition is that the initials of the husband will be hidden on of the bride's hands filled with henna decorations. At the nuptial night the husband is to find these initials in her hand.

The morning of the wedding a prayer is done to wish the bride good luck in her next phase of life. After the prayer the bride is covered in a turmeric paste (known as Haldi to Hindus) by her family and relatives. The same applies to the groom. This ceremony is celebrated to enhance the fairness of the bride on the day of the wedding.

In the evening the groom shows up to the banquet hall with a band with him and his family singing and dancing with him. The groom comes to the bride in a nicely decorated horse or horse carriage. During the wedding the groom and bride take seven rounds around a fire and say their vows. After which the groom puts Sindoor into the bride's hair partition. The Sindoor has a lot of significance in the marital life of the bride and groom. The groom also put a sacred necklace around the bride's neck known as a Mangalsutra. This is another thing that signifies a bride is married and shows her transition from a girl to women. The two are now happily wedded.

I hope that this post helped show you how Indian weddings are organized and our traditional ceremonies.