A Hindu Marriage Service
A Hindu marriage is considered to be a holy and religious duty. It's
not just a bond between two people but an alliance between two
families.
It used to be that the marriages where always arranged, but now the
couple have more of a say in the matter. This means the marriages now
are more guided than arranged.
Once the choice has been made, priest looks up the partner's
horoscopes to find a good time for the wedding. In India it would take
place in the bride's home and in Britain it would be in a large hall
where many family members from around the globe would come for the
ceremony.
The wedding is usually quite a pricey affair for the bride's family,
especially if it happens in her home because her father would have
most likely agreed to give a dowry (money given for taken the
daughter) to her husband. Although this is an illegal practice, it is
still observed, sometimes as a matter of pride.
In a Hindu marriage 1st of all, the entire bridegroom and his family
are welcomed at the bride's house. The families introduce one another
and the bridegroom is brought to a specially decorated alter called a
Mandap, offered a seat and a welcoming drink, a mixture of milk, ghee,
yoghurt and honey.
The next step is songs of blessing. The bride and groom stand facing
one another. The priest and an assistance holds a silk clothe between
the couple to form a curtain between them. Then the couple are
showered with rice grains.
After this has happened the daughter is given in marriage by her
father to the groom, who puts his daughter's right hand into the hand
of her husbands. The father asks the g...
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Once this has happened it is the viewing of the pole star. If the
wedding is in the daytime, the couple will look at the sun (surya
darshan) in order to be blessed, and if it is at night they will look
in the direction of the pole star. The wife resolves to be unshaken
and steadfast like the star. (the pole star is dhruva, constant. May I
be dhruva in my husband's family?)
The blessings. The couple are blessed by the elders and the priest for
a long and prosperous married life. This will be followed by a
scruptuous feast to impress all the guests. When the bride enters the
house of her husband's family for the first time, she has one more
ceremony to perform. She must kick over metal pot containing wheat
with her right foot so that the grain, split over the threshold,
signifies she will bring prosperity.
... A final prayer ends the ceremony. The women then rush to the kitchen to serve dinner while the men set up the tables. After dinner the afternoon is spent visiting, playing games and matchmaking. Sometimes the bride will match unmarried boys and girls who are over 16 years old to sit together at the evening meal which ustarts at 5:00 P.M. The day usually ends around 10:30 P.M.
The bride is then assisted in adorning herself for the public ceremony which begins with a feast at the family’s home.
A Jewish Marriage Ceremony In Hebrew, marriage is referred to as Kiddush (sanctification) or nisuin (elevation) - a nisuin Marrying a Jewish partner is important mainly for the sake of the children, because whether a child is Jewish or not is determined only by its mother. Before the wedding, the bride-to-be goes to the Mikveh, the special. immersion pool where women go to cleanse themselves from impurity. usually menstruation and to start fresh.
Engstrom (2008) argues in his paper that weddings are considered hegemonic practices due to the fact that getting married is considered “the life goal for women” (p. 61). He believes that the media and publications surrounding weddings and wedding materials (for example, dresses, veils, flowers, etc.) make weddings seem glamorous. Engstrom’s focus on hegemony and women is the media that surrounds weddings. Engstrom (2008) writes, “these bridal media serve as an example of hegemony…as the exercise of indirect power as exemplified by civil institutions, among which he includes the media industry” (p. 61). In that, weddings have become part of this category of dominant practices due to the media presenting ideas around weddings. The media portrays weddings as a goal that should be fulfilled by the entire population. Examples of media would be reality TV shows, magazines, advertisements, and even movies surrounding the idea of marriage. All of these examples help support the notion that marriage is considered a ‘hegemonic practice’
Stromquist, Kat. “Royal Weddings In Romantic Britian.” Britian 79.4 (2011)” 42-45. Master File Elite. Web 5 Mar. 2014.
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
The fourth and final step of the marriage process is to become one flesh. According to free dictionary.com, become means “to grow or come to be,” or “to be appropriate or suitable; to develop or grow into; to be appropriate; befit.” Becoming is a process that takes time and work. Tim Keller states that in order to call a union marriage, “sex is understood as both a sign of that personal, legal union and a means to accomplish it. The Bible says don’t unite with someone physically unless you are also willing to unite with the person emotionally, personally, socially, economically, and legally. Don’t become physically naked and vulnerable to the another person without becoming vulnerable in every other way, because you have given up your freedom and bound yourself in marriage.” (Keller pg. 215) God’s design is supposed to occur on the wedding night as they complete their marriage vows by having sex. It is clear that “they will become one flesh” is a indirect term for sex but it is also more than sex. The become one is to be on the same page, mind and accord. It is correct to compare it to one brain, making one decision and taking one action. Together one path, and they share one authority, one heart, one body, one mind, one thought, one church, and one God. The spouses become one flesh in every sense of the word. All these areas of oneness are important because division in any of them will cause them to stumble.
Today, India is the second most populous country in the world and in 2050 this country – continent should overtake the giant Chinese and to be the largest society in the world with more than 1,6 billion of people. In India, more than 15 million marriages take place each year.
In today’s society very few wedding traditions from the past are carried on in the ceremonies. Couples now are choosing the more traditional weddings and not knowing what all the old traditions and rituals stand for.
Most people in the world derive their religious beliefs and traditions from their parents and peer influences. From a religious point of view, “There are many definitions for the term ‘religion’ in common usage. [Broadly defined], in order to include the greatest number of belief systems: ‘Religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics, and a philosophy of life’” (Robinson, 1996). However, in examining Hinduism, it is difficult to label the practices as a religion. This paper will expound upon the Hindu traditions, taking into account the characteristics of sacred elements, their meaning, and significance.
Marriage practices vary across cultures. Every culture has its own way of conducting marriage according to their traditions and customs. Most cultures share common customs and practices, while some cultures have unique practices. Marriage refers to a social union agreed upon by the couples to unit as spouses. The union of couples implies sexual relations, permanence in union, and procreation. This research paper focuses on comparing marriage practices in American and Indian culture. There is significant difference between the two cultures in marriage practices.
"More Wedding Customs." Life in Elizabethan England 62:. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
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.
...church, a courthouse, or a wedding venue. Both bride and groom exchange wedding rings and kiss before the witnesses and their families. Flowers are thrown at the newlyweds when they leave the place of ceremony. The banquet party happens in a restaurant where the bride’s and groom’s families, their relatives, and guests are sharing their joy and celebration. Dancing in the party is the loveliest part of the American wedding culture and happens at every American wedding. In addition, at the end of my husband’s coworker wedding party, I saw the guests enjoyed dancing happily around the newlyweds until late in the night to share the joy of happiness to the newlyweds.
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.