Indian Weddings

Gaoly VueWriting 001 Section 25

• Indian wedding are one of the largest parties that Indians celebrate, but the wedding is taken very seriously. It is taken seriously because marriage is a huge commitment to the culture, to create a new family and loyalty.

• In the past marriages were usually arranged because of family history or family enhancement.

• Indian weddings have traditional rules that both of the couple’s family must follow like:

1) Song choice2) Preparations3) Rituals

Song Choice

• There are some songs that can be sung, but Sunag and Ghorian (Horan) are the songs that must be sung.

• Sunag and Ghorian are very old songs that the females sing at weddings.

• The music and tone of the songs are sad. The song sends the bride off into her new family or the final words from the females.

• Optional: There are songs that is mother to daughter. These songs are mostly chosen by the mothers.

Preparations

• Video tapers: take video as witnesses to those who can not make it to the wedding. It also can be replayed in the future too.

• Video tapers are also the main part of the wedding because they direct the wedding. The video tapers tells the families where and when to stop during the wedding to recapture the scene.

• The bride must wear a large amount of bracelets o her arms and dress in red.

• Henna (modern): temporary tattoo that the bride wears all over her arms, legs, and hands.

• Henna (traditional): It’s a ritual.-the color signifies the essence of love, the darker

the color, the stronger the love.-usually designed by the grooms side of the family. - it also worn all over the arms, legs, and hands.

Henna and Bracelets

• Rituals: -Walking around the fire place seven times.-Using a cloth to tie the newly weds together.-Kumkumam -Mangalsutra (mun-gal-sue-ther)

Kumkumam

Mangalsutra

• Indians believe that they can live seven generations, but with different life and gender. This the reason why they walk around the fire place seen times.

• Using a cloth to tie the newly weds signifies that the couple is together.

• Walking around the fire is a sign of making a commitment to be together.

-during the walk around the fire place, the priest is preaching about marriage.• The fire symbolizes for the gods. Walking around while the priest

is preaching is like making the commitment in front of the gods as witness.

• Kumkumam: a red mark on the foreheads of married females. The mark was put there by the husband on the day the couple got married.

• Mangalsutra: A necklace made out of gold that the bride must wear. (another way of telling a married woman from a unmarried woman.)

• Being married traditionally brings more of the families together and it helps the bride and groom to feel happy when they both get married.

• The families from both sides get to mingle with each other. Mingling helps the families to all get to know each other and start feeling like family. Within the days of the wedding, it give the families an opportunity to open up to the community as it join in with the family.

• Some families are still having arranged marriages, but now arrange marriages are less organized.

• Arranged marriages, the couples sometimes learn how love each other during the marriage and sometimes it doesn’t work out.

• Modern day wedding, the male gets to pick his wife. It more about love now than back then that deals with family history.

• Family in the Indian culture is very important because it not only bring the family together, but also the community.

• Wedding ceremonies last seven to eleven days.• The priest get to pick which days are holy and

which days are not.• Some of the days my occur in between the week

of the wedding, so for those days the wedding is on it’s break.

In conclusion

• Indian weddings takes a lot of preparations and cost a lot. The amount of time spent on the wedding takes a lot of planning and excitement. Walking around the fire place seen times mean to be together for seven generations. Family to Indians are important because it is what holds everyone together. Being married is one of the happiest moments in a family, which its why it means so much to the Indian culture.