Indian Wedding Traditions Almost every culture around the world have the idea of bringing together households in marriage. In the United States, this a coupling of two people who will start a life on their own. In India, a marriage is more than two people falling and love and getting married. Family, religion and casts play a role for the future bride and groom. The Indian culture’s weddings have different traditions when it comes to proposals, ring traditions and ceremonies not only for the couple but for the families as well. Many of the marriages in India are arranged. While the tradition is becoming less and less popular, parents will often search to find the right partner for their children. It is not just two people getting married, …show more content…
One of the ceremonies that starts the beginning of the wedding festivities is the engagement ceremony, this is called the sagai ceremony or ring ceremony. This ceremony is also called Mangni in the northern region of India. In other cultures, the exchanging of rings is done during the wedding ceremony, during Indian weddings, this is an event on it’s own. During this ceremony, the couple exchange gold rings, a sign of betrothal.The future-bride and groom are also given various gifts from their future in-laws. The families also decided on the time of the wedding based on horoscopes, this is called a muhurat. This is considered a small event during the wedding process in India. The time between the ring ceremony and the wedding is a time for the families to …show more content…
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
Nuer and American wedding’s result in the two extended families coming together and unite as one (Holtzman: 2008, 73). Nuer families are involved in the involvement of payment of bridewealth cattle, usually getting between 25 to 40 animals, from the family of the groom to the family of the bride (Holtzman: 2008, 73). The purpose of the bridewealth cattle was to connect her father from her groom’s father and to make children from the marriage. In America, traditionally, the bride and the groom often get gifts from all family members, but they would not get animals. They usually receive currency or household materials. Nuer weddings are not arranged like traditional Nuer marriages. Many of the times, the couple are usually friends or lovers before marriage (Holtzman: 2008, 74) which is similar to American culture.
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...
In the Indian culture, marriage is different from another culture's point of view. In the film Ravi decides to break a two year relationship from an American woman before he attended his family trip to India, which coincides with
“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.
One of the main arguments for arranged marriages is that parents, being older and more experienced, are better able to find a suitable match for their children. This belief relies on the trust the offspring has that their parents understand what would be best choice or most suitable for their children. This trust is often discouraged by the individualist ideal and rebel teen mentality sponsored by American mass-media. However, in India trust between parent and child are common. When Nanda tried helping arrange a marriage, we see that parents in India weigh many considerations when choosing partners for their children including the statuses of the individuals (including their caste and career path), the social dynamics between the members of both households, and what resources the other family and potential partner have. At least in the case given in the reading, this process can be though and produce a good marriage with stable family ties. Another argument made for arranged marriage is that since the parents are handling the marriage, the children are free to enjoy life and not worry about the details. To a lesser degree in our country, people delegate part of the relationship forming process to others by allowing friends, family, and dating sites or shows to play matchmaker. Though in general, in America the person who would be in the relationship is more involved, and has to worry about handling some of the details. In India, culture is more dependent on family structure so marriage is just as much about forming ties between families as the couple itself, which is part of the reason why the family is so involved in these
There are a lot of ways Hindu and American weddings are different, but there are also similarities but are their weddings alike or different to ours? In these two pages I will reflect on how the weddings are different.
The Hindu wedding is a complex ceremony whose various components has all a specific meaning and has all a relation to
Arranged marriages is main process to find women in Hindu culture. 90% of marriage are done by arrange in this culture (Kapoor). Web. Arranged marriage is the main way for marriage in Nepali culture. Marriage is an important social bond between families. When a child reaches marriageable age, the family elders are responsible for finding a suitable mate of the appropriate caste, education level, and social match. The bride’s family provides usually a dowry to the groom’s family what they demand. But nowadays it’s not necessary. A dowry is illegal in this culture these days. The cost of a wedding is really expensive mostly to the bride’s family. In the past days arranged marriage was really hard for brides and grooms in this culture. The reason was they didn’t know each other and the interesting thing was they never even saw each other’s face until the marriage date. Hindu castes do not generally approve of cross-cousin (out of a caste) marriage, which is preferred among some Mongolian ethnic groups. Among some groups, a bride’s price substitutes for a dowry. In others, clan exogamy (choosing partner outside of one’s clan) is an important feature of marriages. Until recently, it was common to marry more than one women, but now it is illegal and found only in the older generation and in remote areas.
But on the contrary, American rituals such as cutting the cake, declaring vows, and exchanging rings all hold the same principals as the rituals stated above. When the bride and groom are tied together by their garments, they are symbolizing the eternal bond and commitment to each other in marriage. This correlates to cutting of the cake where the groom puts his hand over the brides and slices their wedding cake to represent their commitment to support and provide for each other in the bond of marriage. Additionally, when comparing the two weddings different traditions are used when pertaining to promises and pledges made between the bride and groom. In western marriages the couple simply share with each other their vows out loud at the wedding ceremony. However, in the Hindu wedding each of the seven steps the bride and groom take together each represent marital vows. The first represents respect and honor, the second promises to share in each other’s joy and sorrows. Each step is a vow all the way to the seventh step vowing an eternal bond of friendship and love without saying a single word. Another example would be the use of the mangalsutra, otherwise known as the thread of good will, in correspondence to weddings rings. Each of piece of jewelry is a symbol of marriage for each culture. When the groom adorns the bride with the mangalsutra or when the couple exchanges weddings rings, the ceremonial act of marriage is
When it comes to the topic of marriage, different cultures have different customs. Some of these customs have changed over the years and some have stayed the same. One type of marriage that interests me is arranged marriage and why there are arranged marriages still going on today. That is why I have chosen to write about them in this paper and discuss why they were/are an important staple in certain cultures.
Marriage is a significant social event in contemporary society. It is a means of building new bonds between two individuals and their subsequent families. The foundations of memorable weddings are built on those that bring often-distant family and friends together for the occasion, while dressed in their most sophisticated attire, surrounded by elegant flowers, a night of dancing, captured through the lens of an exceptional photographer. Although Hinduism and Islam are two extremely distinctive religions, their matrimonial customs do share some comparable elements, like most other cultural wedding ceremonies. In both religions, they are devotedly obedient concerning religious and cultural practices in their marital ceremonies.
For instance, bride service is a type of marriage found in foraging societies. The husband is forced to work for his wife’s family for an expected amount of time in exchange for his right to marry (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p. 228). Another type of marriage is known as bridewealth, where goods are passed back and forth between the groom’s kin and the bride’s kin to solidify the marriage (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p. 228). Although, Dowry is not as popular as bridewealth, there is still an exchange of goods between families (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p.228). Dowry is widely practiced in India and represents a kind of compensation to the groom’s family for the “economic burden” of taking care of his wife (Nanda, Warms, 2017, p. 228). These three examples of marriage correlate with how the economy and financial security play major roles behind the customs that surround the
The groom will wear many different outfits throughout the day of the ceremony. He will wear a Dhoti and some type of shirt until he arrives at the bride’s house. A Dhoti is an unstitched garment that tied to the waist and covers a majority of the legs. Upon arrival he will be wrapped with a sheet. When it’s time for the ceremony to the groom could be seen wearing a white silk suit, a sword and a turban but it may vary in different locations. The turban, or safa, can be worn with a tail-end or have white flowers suspended with strings; these flowers are called Sehra. In some areas, such as central and western India, a golden crest studded with stone is tied over the right side of a groom’s
There are many different marriage practices around the world and each has its own unique cultural and economic aspect. This paper will explore the dynamics of Japanese and Indian marriages and how they compare and contrast with one another. The analysis will address cultural factors and how it relates to symbolic systems such as religion and rituals and how they are slowly diminishing in lieu of a more westernized modern marriage. For instance, Japan's traditional marriages are becoming a thing of the past due to more westernized and modern versions that appeal to the younger couples. Some couples are even adopting the American wedding ceremonies in place of their cultural ones. In its effort to promote freedom of choice, India's government encourages inter-caste inter-faith marriages by offering couples money. However, this is conditional; stipulations are that "one of the partners should be from scheduled caste category and there should be no conversion in case of an inter-faith marriage" (Govt incentives for inter-caste marriages, 2012, para. 3). This is a milestone in India where traditions, customs, and the Hindu religion still rules a larger proportion of people.
People around the world have many different kinds of wedding due to the differences in their religions and cultures. Since most Thai people are the Buddhists, the traditional Thai wedding is mainly related to Buddhism. However, it is also blended with Thai culture and Thai people’s ways of life. Traditional Thai wedding can be organized in various ways depending on the local people’s beliefs. In this essay I will describe some details of the general traditional Thai wedding.