Indian Wedding

I quote one of the foreigners, "I forgot my ear-plugs. How could I come to an Indian wedding without my ear-plugs." 


I personally I have enjoyed hearing several Indian wedding from a safe distance, but yesterday I had the opportunity to attend one. So for the sake of all my friends in Idaho who re jealous, I shall tell you about it.

The wedding is more like a reception and ceremony combined. It is quiet the formal event, but also very...well...Indian. We arrived late...maybe 7:30pm. We went into the tent, where people were enjoying food, while waiting for the groom to come. The kids and some freakish-looking clown-like-people were dancing to the excessively loud music. Then the power went out, and unfortunately, the generator was only enough to power the lights, so we got to talk to people, because we could actually hear them.

Sometime after 8pm the "racket" arrived. That's what the foreigners call the groom's parade - a bunch of men with large carnival lights on their heads, and a band making a lot of "racket" or really loud music...The groom's family sat down with the bride's father and lots of words were spoken in Hindi...Then the groom walked to the front and sat in his kingly chair.

As people milled about, chatting and eating, the bride came in with her bridesmaids. They were gorgeous in their elegant red sari's!!! They joined the groom up front and more ceremonially things took place, like the bride and groom exchanging flower leis. Meanwhile people continued mingling, eating, and chatting.

Then there are lots of pictures. Everyone gets their picture taken with the bride and groom. A couple of my friends and I got our picture taken...even though none of us know the groom, and only 1 had ever met the bride.
I'm not sure which was more exciting, seeing how gorgeous the bride is, or realizing that the groom is not Indian, or the shell-shocked looks on his parent's faces because of this whole chaotic event.

Apparently there are certain dates on the Hindu calendar that are more auspicious, so right now is "wedding season." On the 5 minuet drive home, we passed 3 more "rackets" getting set up and ready to go. Another "racket" was parading further down our road (near the training center where our group stayed when we were here in January).

I fell into bed at 11pm, being lulled to sleep by the sounds of many Indian weddings taking place late into the night...