Hindu Wedding

Food preparation out the back

Father of the bride

Bride and groom

Hindu priest with a long list of tasks to be completed by the couple and family. Groom is getting a blessing by a member of the family

Relative in traditional Nepali dress

We were invited to a high class Brahmin wedding today. We have seen about 15 weddings today as today is the one day in this lunar month where all the factors come together to make it an auspicious day. (The planets etc all line up which brings the couple good luck.)

Weddings appear to be arranged a little differently than in the past, in the towns anyway. The groom is shown pictures of potential girls when he is at the appropriate age for marriage. If he is attracted to one he gets ½ hour alone with her. If both male and female are happy with each other the families are left to decide whether these people are right for each other. If the family approve they are married on the next auspicious day that is coming up. Therefore, a month ago the bride today didn’t know that she was going to get married!!! I think that the partnership may be decided at a younger age in the villages.

We arrived in time for the feast (great timing, good food and heaps of it!) and after the guests had eaten all the street kids managed to get their fill!!
The wedding goes for 3 days (we think) and today was the brides family part. Tomorrow is the grooms family part. There was a feast today and all the official stuff. We arrived after it had been going for 2 hours before breaking for lunch. We left after about ¾ of an hour into the formalities after lunch and went for a bike ride. We came back an hour later and it was still going!!! Even while we were there the family was coming and going all the time!!!

The formalities that we saw revolved around the Hindu priest direction. He had a very very long series of activities that they had to go through. The blessing was given from family members by washing themselves with water and then placing a tika (red dye with rice – a holy Hindu blessing) on the forehead of both the bride and groom. At one stage the father of the bride took the topi (traditional hat) off the groom and replaced it with a new one as well as giving him a gold watch. Another part involved some money being place in a sheet, tika’s added to this and then it all tied in a knot that was pulled tight by the bride and groom and then draped over their shoulders while they marched around a fire as the priest chanted prayers.
The thing that struck Mark and I the most was the sadness of the bride. They are supposed to look sullen as they are leaving their family but she either was a really good actor or really wasn’t enjoying the whole thing. Ok, so parts of it must be boring but still – to us it is your wedding day and it should be a happy occasion but here it certainly doesn’t seem to be for the bride!!! The groom was really happy.