(22-May-2016)
Today, I am going to talk about the Indian traditional marriage.
I visited Kerala about 2 weeks ago, the state which has its unique culture and is located southern part of India.
The biggest reason I visited there was to participate in the wedding ceremony of the Gokul family.
There was the wedding ceremony for Gokul’s brother!
After this post, I am also going to make a post about the train of India.
It was the first time I took a train in India on the way to Gokul’s place and it was so impressive.
Before we go in, let’s stop and see the photo that I am in with Dhoti which is traditional Indian clothes.
The guy on the centre is Gokul and me!
This is the stairway to the temple and Indian traditional Hindu wedding ceremony is usually held in it.
Shall we go inside?
You can easily think that this place is the yard of the temple. But yard with roof that you can prevent yourself from the intense sunlight.
On the backward of the photo, the main temple is located. I heard that I cannot go take photo as they believe that place is sacred.
Ta-da! Now you can find the Main characters! The bride and the groom is coming!!
When you think of the western wedding ceremony, you can easily find the dedicated stage for a bride and a groom and you might be sitting on the chair just like a concert hall.
But here, there is no stage, no chairs. A bride and a groom stand on the centre and people stand around them.
Before 10AM, people gathered together to celebrate them and there were several ritual ceremony.
At exact 10AM, the real wedding was made.
You can see the garland on their neck. It means the wedding is now valid.
I could not take a photo but you can usually find the red dot on the forehead of Indian women who get married. It is called “Sindoor”.
I am not sure that he is the priest or not but I was told that he is one of the family member of the bride or the groom.
He was just like a officiator.
Usually in Korea, wedding ceremony ends in one hour and the short reception is followed.
But the traditional wedding ceremony in India lasts for all day!!
The ceremony we have seen is just a small part of it.
The reception from the bride side is waiting for you.
I went to the small auditorium in town and the people from the village gather here to take photo with the bride and the groom and to celebrate their wedding.
This is the special southern Indian table d’hote named “Meals” on banana leaf. I am not sure but I heard that some people from northern part of India also call it Thali.
My friend Azhar told me that this is the special food I can have especially only in the wedding ceremony.
I can find some little cute children here.
After lunch, I went to the groom’s place. Parents and relatives from the groom side celebrate their wedding with doing some ritual ceremony.
I heard that it is a warm welcome for a bride.
There was a banana soup in the cup.
I think only family member feed them banana soup to celebrate them but I got a special honour to give it to them as a special guest!
There was a cow in his place:)
You might think that everything might be over because it becomes 4PM already… but you are wrong.
Reception from the groom side is waiting for you.
As the temple that wedding ceremony was held was quite far from the village, neighbour in the village cannot come.
So there is another reception for them. New couple invite people from the village and treat them dinner and they celebrate their new married life and take a photo with them with well-wishing remarks.
One thing most impressive was wedding ceremony in India never ends.
It means they have a “lot” of people who celebrate them.
I heard that there are some people in Korea who even hire part-timer just to show off themselves that they got many people who can celebrate them or not to get crestfallen compared to other people. Part-timers just participate in the wedding ceremony and pretend to celebrate them.
(It is hard to explain in English)
I got one idea that the relationship in the healthy community is the most precious asset!
It was a really special experience in my life and gives me opportunity to think about the true meaning of the marriage and relationship.
6-Jun-2016
super ……awesome
Thanks a lot…