Wedding Ceremony In The Hindu Wedding

The Hindu wedding is the culmination of a long process that mixes religious and traditional considerations and most material and interested aspects. Once the marriage is arranged, the spouse is chosen, and the date is fixed, the ceremony is organized and can take place invariably according to Hindu rites. After the engagement ceremony, which is a brief ritual where the couple exchanges gold rings, women and men are separated. The women organize the ceremony of Mehndi, “a party where the bride and female guests have their hands decorated with henna, [which] is usually held at the home of the bride or her relatives” (Yee par.8). Then, there is the evening of the Sangeet, during which they sing and dance all night. As Divya Patwari explains in

These clothes are made specifically for the occasion: the groom wears white dhoti or sherwani, and a wedding hat. The bride is dressed in a traditional red sari and jewelry. The ceremony begins with the symbolic giving away of the bride, Kanya Dhanam. In this part of the ceremony, the “bride’s father pours sacred water in his daughter’s hand and places her hand in the groom’s hand, officially giving away his most precious gift to the groom” (Patwari par.11). The husband in his turn reciprocally accepts the hand of the bride. The groom’s closest female family member, such as a sister or cousin, then ties the end of the groom’s scarf to the bride’s sari with betel nuts, copper coins and rice, symbolizing unity, prosperity and happiness. The knot made with their clothing represents the eternal bond of

The red, saffron and yellow colors, which are the divine colors, are present in all the steps of the ceremonies, and the fire, symbol of life, is as well. Throwing perfumed rice is also a way to invoke the Gods and get their good graces for the couple. And although marriage remains a mostly traditional ceremony, a small part of youth, mainly urbanized, turns to more contemporary practices and behaviors. In fact, as Tulika Jaiswal states in her book Indian Arranged Marriages: A Social Psychological Perspective, “in the wake of globalization, there has been ever-increasing consumerism, including access to education, employment and Western media. These have all influenced the social values and norms of the collectivistic cultures, in turn encouraging adoption of individualistic values” (Jaiswal