Written By Ananya Agarwal (Grade 7)
Do you know the event that is most celebrated in India? Weddings, the ceremony of marriage, the event that marks the love between two people. A wedding in India has greater importance than any other festival in the whole world. The couple is celebrated and showered with blessings from their entire families on a minimum of seven events that lead to the actual ceremony. In India, a wedding is more of a relationship starting between two whole families than two people. And according to me, an Indian wedding is that one thing out of so many wonderful things about India and its people. It is a very important and unique aspect of India.
The beauty of an Indian wedding is even the smallest thing said or done in the whole ceremony has some significant meaning to religion or mythology. From the mantras (vows) spoken by the bride and groom to even the seating of the bride and groom all of it has a certain meaning. In fact, weddings have become a major industry in India, although it consists of very unorganised and small scale businesses it really benefits the middle-class. And because Indian weddings are events no less than a week it benefits them even more. And the actual wedding day is even more hectic, the wedding starts off with the groom entering the venue on horseback with his entire family (baraat), then the bride also comes with an extravagant entry and the both put flower necklaces around each other known as Varn Malaa. Then they both meet each others families and gifts are exchanged, after which the actual ritual starts. Where they both pray and take 7 vows and 7 circles around the holy fire. At last, after that, it’s the time for the bride to go to her new house. The whole ceremony is really beautiful with a lot of pure emotions. Aside from all the rituals, Indian weddings are full of loads of fun, laughter, dance and food. It is a kind of event where all skills come into use: photography, dance, singing, designing and many more. But the most important thing in the whole wedding has to be the food, the food of the wedding decides how good or bad the wedding was. Sometimes people (who aren’t even invited) even randomly enter these types of weddings and pretend to be a family member just to eat the food! It is bizarre but true.
I think now you all know why I found Indian weddings so unique and attractive. They just have so much love and emotions in every little thing and they are such a big deal to people over here. For many, it is sometimes the most important event in their lives. I think this is just a way to show the love Indians have for each other and also how much they love celebrating and finding joy in anything and everything!
Featured Image Courtesy – Daily Sabah