Monday, July 9, 2007

Monsoon Wedding

So a lot of awesome things have been happening lately but I haven't had the time to blog about them yet so before the next event starts, I'll take the time to do that!!! I'll divide them into several blog posts.

A few weeks ago, we got invited to a real monsoon wedding. Reikah, who is Sangam's tailor, invited us all to her little sister's wedding. Of course, we weren't going to pass this awesome opportunity up so we all took the afternoon off to go to the wedding.

It wasn't like any wedding at home. There are many little ceremonies that take place during the day. We arrived just in time for the actual marriage, which isn't the coolest part in my opinion. During the actual marriage, the man in charge of the ceremony leads the family and friends that have come in prayer and we all got to throw rice for good luck. After several prayers and throwing a bunch of rice, they were married! Then, in order to bless their life and marriage, many other smaller ceremonies are conducted. Since we couldn't stay for a long time, we went downstairs to eat lunch. The lunch was really good, I would have taken a picture but since everyone was already staring at us, I didn't see a need to add one more reason for them to stare. The lunch was basically a Maharashtrian dinner, rice, potatoes, chipatis. It was delicious, and we all managed to do a great job eating with our hands! When we finished eating lunch, we went back upstairs to see what other ceremonies were taking place. After the marriage, everyone starts chatting among themselves and the bride and groom aren't the center of attention. It becomes more of a family reunion, everyone catching up, meeting new relatives, and all of that stuff. We came upstairs just in time for the fire ceremony. The fire will bring the couple good luck and prosperity in their new life together. The wedding was so much fun. We got to meet Reikah's entire family and got to dress up in our saris. All in all, it was a great day!

The fire ceremony.

Anna, Vivi, me, Reikah, and Julie.

christa

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