India: The Wedding Day-Cleansing Ceremony

February 14th, the wedding day, was finally here. We were supposed to meet at 11 am at one of the banquet rooms to watch an essential part of the wedding in Hindu—the cleansing ceremony. Most of us were on time, waiting patiently for the magical events to unfold.

We waited.

and waited…

and waited… for final preparations to be over…

…thus learning about Indian Standard Time (as explained to us by Ashok, my sister’s father-in-law).

Well, Mark was having fun taking all sorts of pictures. This is the place where Lyena and Saumya were going to sit.

This is the other side of the spectators, also patiently waiting.

One of ten or twelve photographers…

This awesome drummer.

And then….finally, the festivities began. Dancing is a huge part of any celebration here, but especially of the wedding celebration. Men, women, old, young—all were dancing to get into festive mood.

We, of course, had to join in, at first, not exactly knowing what to do (I still don’t but at least I don’t care-haha).

Mika and Alex really got into it.

Now, for the next part, I wish I knew more about what was going on! I am sure each part of the cleansing ceremony meant something very special, but we were too involved to ask questions. Here are the objects that were part of the ceremony.

I remember something about coconut meaning money.

So Saumya and Lyena had to sit there like that, not talking, not smiling (Lyena!!).

And when someone from the Indian side would ask us to do something, such as smother Lyena in turmeric (well, not exactly smother), we took turns doing just what they showed us to do.

Here is my mom. So the bride’s family is supposed to do the ritual for the bride, and then the groom’s side was with the groom.

A different angle for you.

I took a turn, my mom; I believe, my cousins, and Lyena’s friend did as well. The whole ceremony lasted half an hour or so. Turmeric was actually burning her skin as we put a bit too much on her cheeks (not knowingly). 

So she was anxious to go wash her hands and change into her lunch outfit.

Another cool ceremony to be part of, eh?

When this part was over, we were served a very-very nice yummy lunch in another room. It was buffet style, mostly Indian, with some Western elements intermingled (like a nice green salad and pasta). It’s funny, but most of our family found Indian “NOT SPICY” food too spicy to eat.  It is just such a different cuisine. Even for us, who are used to Indian, albeit Westernized, food, some of their mild dishes were a bit hard to swallow.

We had a couple of hours between lunch until we had to be all ready for the main event taking place outside!

Take care for now. And thanks for reading.

Lyana.