An Indian Wedding, Part IV, The Ceremony

Here is the fourth and final installment of my brother's colorful account of celebrating an Indian marriage.

part i , part ii , part iii

The actual wedding was at 1:30 in a covered open air structure.  Beautiful hand strewn flowers were hung from every rafter, and bright vibrant colors highlighted the altar.   Satya and Anu were centered in the middle with the priests.  Anu was wearing another completely different wedding gown  Satya wore the same outfit, but had to wear a large headdress that covered his face and extended up another two feet over his head.  Everyone else was sitting on the floor around them.  There were probably 60-70 people watching the ceremony, consisting mainly of family and close friends. The priests performed countless rituals throughout the ceremony.

  Satya seemed to be doing a pretty good job.  At one point, the wedding stalled because he couldn’t figure out that he was supposed to cover himself and Anu with a shawl and eat some fruit, but fortunately he recovered quickly and the wedding moved on.  I think every single person in  Anu’s family came up to give their blessing in some way.  At one point, the guests had to touch both of the bride and groom’s feet, and then give some money to the priests.  I was hoping I would be allowed to do this one, but they passed me over.  

Surya (the groom’s father) and his brothers performed another ceremony to welcome Anu into the family.  Once again, they paid the priests when this was done.  One of the funniest moments in the ceremony was when they paid the priests one last time for the services -Surya stood up and handed each priest some money, but he skipped over the horn blowing pundit.  This guy was really upset, he didn’t want to make a scene but he wanted to get paid.  He kept nudging the main priest until he said something.

 
Another interesting part of the wedding were the other events going on while Satya and Anu were getting married  There was loud music and a female dancer on stage where Satya had been sitting in his throne.  It looked like most of the viewers were locals and some of the villagers who had made the trek from Satya’s village.  

The wedding was finally finished at about 5:30.  The gathering broke up pretty quickly as everyone was exhausted, and it was starting to rain.  We were rushed back to the hotel, only to be told that we were going to get picked up again around 9.  The next morning, there were a few more good-bye ceremonies and by 11:00 Satya and Anu were on the road back to Satya’s house.   

 
Overall, I was able to understand most of  the day,  but I think a lot was lost in translation.  The main difference from a wedding in the US and a wedding in India is the involvement of the family in the wedding.  A lot of the ceremonies and prayers were not only between bride and groom, but between family members and the newlyweds.  Watching from afar, I could really see how important family and their support was for all involved.  Although Satya and Anu were getting married, the event included every family member and a large show of support from both sides.