Don't give up on me yet!

For those of you who are still reading my blog, don't stop reading it yet. I will finish up with the rest of my entries from a pilgrimage I went on to Char Dham when I was still in India, and since I am now back in my home town a few of my reflections on the whole experience. Also I have done a little other traveling on the side recently to Europe for a couple weeks, and to Maui, HI in the states.

during the marriage

The fire that you can see in the picture needs to be walked around several times before they are officially married. During this time flowers are thrown at the two of them and everyone teases them.

Me in a rickshaw in Bhavnagar where my host grandparents live.

The Marriage day

The sister of the bride carries the pot like thing on her head when the groom comes to welcome him. Before the groom comes there is some welcoming among the families where the sister of the bride feeds the groom sweets and tries to pinch his nose to tease him. This is to show the teasing he will recieve from her throughout his marriage.

Some of the grooms friends are teasing him by preventing him from seeing his incoming bride through the crowd.

Bride and groom meeting for the first time in several days to put flowers on each other and do some welcoming with the family.

here comes the bride carried by her family to the wedding tent.

Procession of the Uncles

Another one of the traditions of this family is for the uncle to give gifts to the bride and her family and also buy the wedding sari for her. To bring the gifts there is a huge procession down the road with music and dancing to bring the gifts. The plan was to dance all down the road, but due to the heat they got lazy and just danced in the driveway of her house.

Everyone holding the gifts to hand out.

dancing in the street

Family functions for marriage

almost every day we were eating at a marriage grounds for buffet style meals, and this is the typical place where the food is prepared.

The bride Sweetie getting her bridal mehndi applied. She needs to sit like this for four to six hours, and then wait for it to dry afterwards.

The gossip group of women as their mehndi is applied. They can't really use their hands properly so each time water was brought up someone needed to hold the cup for them while they drank.

Before the marriage the bride in this family held a before wedding dinner for all the community members they knew in the town. They claimed that around 3,000 people were there, and the food counters and chairs took up a football field so I am sure around 3,000 people showed up.

Marriage

Indians, especially Gujaratis are obsessed with sweets, and they always have a box in their house to eat at dinner and share with guests. Lots of the sweets are made with cashew nuts, kesar flavoring, coconut, pistacios, and figs. I am not a big fan of them, but it is necessary to eat them almost every day.

This is a group of women doing Puja before a marriage to their caste god of vishnu.

One of the traditions of this particular family is for the parents to buy the bride all new clothes, jewelery, bedding, and other items to take with her to her new family.

Mehndi with my first host mother Rima