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Punjabi Wedding
Traditions
However, if roka permits the couple to court each
other, what really formalizes the acceptance by both the parties to the wedding
is Sagaai or engagement that is traditionally required to be hosted by the
grooms unlike other Indian cultures. Bride’s father begins the Sagaai party by
adorning a tikka (a vertical stroke of vermillion) on groom’s forehead and pays
him a ritualistic sum of money. This gesture is returned by the groom’s party
with a basket of fruits and bouquets. Exchange of wedding rings is a recent
phenomenon.
The bride wears a chuni and has
Henna designs placed on
her hands and feet that can take up to three days before the wedding, on the
occasion of Sagaai which is often family heirloom; needless to say, the chuni is
usually very ornate. Towards the middle of the function, mother-in-law to-be
exhibits her acceptance of groom’s choice by dotting the bride’s palm with
mehndi. Sagaai ends with each one feeding the other with traditional sweets and
particularly the couples and their parents.
For three days ahead of wedding day, the couples aren’t supposed to meet each
other. Bride’s party playing the hosts arrives at the venue in order to be able
to welcome the baraat (procession by groom’s party). In the meanwhile, inside
the venue, all the women, bride and her maids and friends play sangeet (music)
in groups and teasing each other. Bride’s relatives tie (kalira/jingles of
glass) to her bangles on both the hands which she keeps jingling throughout in
an attempt to break them over her unmarried friends’ foreheads. The first girl
to get a piece of this is assumed to get married next.
The baraat arrives with the groom riding a female horse, his face covered by
flowery drapery and an embellished sword in his hand. Wedding follows the
tradition of Kanyadaan (handing over of the bride), exchage of garland and tying
of mangal sutra, nuptial necklace, by the groom and finally the sapta padi to
symbolize the critical steps the couple may need to take ahead in their lives.
All these that happens on the wedding day are common in all Indian weddings, but
with regional touches they become distinctive from each other.
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