A Hindu Wedding
In Hinduism marriage is not just the joining of two people, whose
souls are brought together mentally and physically, but of two
families. There are sixteen sacraments that must be performed whilst a
Hindu is alive to make the life of the individual prosperous and
noble, one of these is marriage.
Many Hindu wedding ceremonies follow the same sequence of events,
whether it is an arranged marriage or not. I went to the wedding
ceremony of Anika Shah and Arun Patel.
Many events happen before the main wedding ceremony. The engagement
ceremony, which in Hindi is called a 'Sagai' is when the brides
relatives visit the grooms house and perform a basic ceremony, in
which they accept the boy to be engaged to the girl. Next a similar
ceremony is performed at the bride's house by the groom's relatives.
The couple are now officially declared 'engaged'. After this they
would seek to be legally married at a registration office. It would be
here that their wedding rings would be exchanged and an official
wedding certificate would be signed and witnessed. The Hindu priest
who is likely to carry out the ceremony decides the date of the
wedding, using the Hindu's religious calendar.
The 'Henna' Ceremony must be carried out a few days before the actual
wedding day. Usually the young female members on the bride's side of
the family gather together to decorate their hands and sometimes their
feet with beautiful patterns, with henna paste that colours the skin.
This could be described as an Indian 'hen night'. The atmosphere at
Anika's ceremony was joyful, cheerful and jubilant, there was plenty
of nattering and laughing. Befo...
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...e union and everlasting friendship. Whilst
standing the groom put some vermilion in the parting of the Anika's
hair, the powder represented the life giving blood that flows in all
of us. He then gave her an auspicious necklace called a 'Mangalsutra'
to signify their marriage; this is made of gold and glass beads.
Finally the priest offered ghee into the sacred fire thereby
completing the wedding ceremony, and for the last time blessed the
couple for there future together. It was also then that we, the
relatives and guests could great the newly married couple, and shower
them with our blessings of usually flowers and rice.
Watching such an elaborate and time taking event is truly wonderful.
The extent of effort that is put into any Hindu wedding that is
similar to the one I have described is without a doubt evident.
...roperty of one another and nothing is held individually against one another. The two will share one of everything, and the Bride is also forced to forget other people. The reason being for all of this is because now the Bride and Bridegroom can now have love for their marriage.
The head of the household has the authority to arrange marriage contracts for the members of his household (Barth-1961). Before the wedding, the groom’s family must pay a milk price which is written in contract by a non-tribal ritual specialist known as a mullah (Barth-1961). The milk price is the payment for the girl and the domesticated equipment she expected to bring along with her, along with the milk price the grooms expectations are to provide his girl with gifts at all calendrical events, the performing of various bride services and minor favors to his parents-in-laws (Barth-1961). After all transactions are cleared, the newly married couple will start their own
As the engue marked a pledge the ekdosis marked a transformation of the bride as she shifted from a child to an adult, a virgin to a wife. Actions that symbolized this transfer included cutting of the bride’s hair, removing the girdle she wore since puberty, and taking a ritual bath in water from a sacred spring.
The groom would wear a black and white tuxedo with either a bow or a tie.
In this case, the woman goes as she starts a new life with her fiancé. Before the wedding, the man goes to the synagogue and they throw nuts. and sweets at him to symbolize sweet life with his bride-to-be. Both the man and woman fast on the day of the wedding, like at Yom. Kippur, for forgiveness and the start of a new life.
Despite people celebrating marriage in different ways it all comes back to one thing; marriage is a social ritual that by which two people affirms one abiding contracts between. The ceremonies are composed of rituals which symbolize facets of married life and the obligations being undertaken. In Hinduism the marriage celebration can start weeks before the actual ceremony depending on the preferences of the family. Once the day of the ceremony comes around the day starts with the brides’ family welcoming the groom into their home and both families are formally introduced. Both the bride and groom sit at the Mandap- tent where the ceremony is held under,-and are offered a drink. Gifts between the two families are generally exchanged at this point. The groom's mother gives an auspicious necklace to the bride, which is essentially an emblem of the married status in the Hindu religion. Then scared fire is lit and a pundit recites t...
from the groom's family that had carried her from her home. The bride now says
“Arranging a Marriage in India” by Serena Nanda is a well written, informative article aimed at sharing the view of the Indian culture on arranged marriages and also showing how much effort is put into the process of arranging a marriage. Our own culture has evolved into accepting the fact that we are all independent individuals who could not imagine having someone else make such a significant decision for us. Serena Nanda does an excellent job of using her sources within the society as evidence of the acceptance of the arranged marriage aspect of their culture.
In the article Arranging a Marriage in India, Serena Nanda, a professor of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, writes about what she learned about arranged marriages in India from interviewing informants and participating in arranging a marriage herself. Nanda brought in some American biases about how marriage and love are “supposed” to work. She initially had trouble accepting why someone would want or let another arrange their marriage instead of seeking a partner themselves. Nanda’s difficulty understanding arranged marriages, is a result of having grown up in a culture that leaves such decisions to the individual. Furthermore, if the quotes given in the article are an indication, Nanda let her biases influence her conduct
In the evening a Mandap is decorated in which Ganesha idol is placed. The idol is decorated with flowers and Doorva (grass) is offered to Ganesha. Desserts pr...
He then mentions cultural traditions in Mongolian weddings such as the groom searching for his bride under a bed of one of the neighboring gers, the preparation of the bride’s family for the bridal breakfast and the groom’s family for the evening feast; that indicates that each family is both trying to show their excessive generosity, care and luxury to the other family. In addition to that, he shows that it was a custom for the sisters of the bride to serve both families with liquor and to make sure that everyone from the bride to the furthest guest are at their absolute comfort and satisfaction. Every Mongolian guest was supposed to give out a song related to weddings even the shyest of them all would have no problem in reciting as the others will accompany him/her later on in the following verses. Another tradition was that each guest had to drink as least three bowls of airag.
They guide the bride from her dressing room door to the place that she will be sitting for the ceremony. Singers and percussion instruments are the sound of music while the bride walks. The singers sing around the bride throughout the entire ritual along with her female family members. They carried candles, each carrying different colors. These candles represented the light for the brides’ upcoming life.
Traditionally marriages have been arranged by the parents and are the culmination of involved and often lengthy negotiations between the families of the bride and groom. A permanent marriage is of particular importance, and a couple’s first marriages are publicly announced and celebrated lavishly.
Arranged marriage in India is the traditional and well respected way of getting married. Majority of the elderly were married through someone, some not even being able to see each other till after the wedding ceremony. Now a day families are a bit more lenient about getting the approvals of both bride and groom before setting a wedding a day. In some parts of India, arrange marriages are still a business transaction or marrying of little children due to poverty. Arranged marriages are still very common in royalties and high caste people to practice maintaining their status.
He usually arrives dressed in his wedding attire on the back of a horse, or sometimes on the back of an elephant. “The wedding altar (mandapa) is built the day of and the groom is welcomed by his future mother in law where his feet are then washed and he is offered milk and honey. His sister in law will attempt to steal his shoes and if she succeeds, the groom must pay her to get them back” (beau-coup.com). At the wedding venue the bride waits for the groom in a room covered in garland, when the groom arrives they exchange garland. After this, the brides family will welcome the grooms family to the wedding. Like Christian weddings, the father of the bride gives the bride away at the wedding, this is called a Kanyadaan. A priest will facilitate the marriage by reciting mantras or holy hymns, but the bride and groom marry each other. The bride and groom are considered married when the groom ties a thread that symbolizes his vow to care for the bride. He ties it in three knots that symbolizes the gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Masheshwara. The ceremony takes place around a fire and the god, Agni is considered the witness to the union. “The bride and the groom then circle the fire seven times, in a clockwise direction, called Saat Phere which signifies seven goals of married life which include religious and moral duties, prosperity, spiritual salvation and liberation, and sensual gratification” (Gullapalli