Diverse Asian Weddings

Friday, 29 July 2011 06:29

There is something inherently mysterious and romantic about Asian Weddings, the rich diversity of Asian cultures, traditions and religions makes for a wide variety of colourful and fascinating wedding customs.

Asian Weddings can be very diverse ranging from Muslim, Hindu or Sikh.

The main aspect about Muslim weddings is that it’s based on tradition. Many of the traditions come from the local country. Muslim Weddings are significantly different to other religious weddings. For one, the Muslim wedding has a number of ceremonies performed besides the actual wedding day. All of the ceremonies combine to make the perfect Muslim wedding experience. It all starts off with the Mehndi, this is a henna night where the bride or groom gets henna applied on their hands. As well as this, there are also traditional songs and dances. It is tradition on this night that the bride does not look her best, she must look pure, dressed down in yellow clothes or greens. The next ceremony is the actual Nikkah, which is the wedding. This is the signing of the official papers between the bride and groom in the presence of an Imam. Once this is complete, food is served to all the guests as a way of announcing the marriage and celebrating. Finally the Walima is usually the second day of the marriage and is hosted by the grooms family. This is just an additional gathering to celebrate the marriage of the new wedded couple.

The Hindu Wedding is nothing like the Muslim Wedding. The only similarity being that it is also based on tradition. The Hindu wedding ceremony believes it unites two people together so much that after the wedding, they are one in spirit however remain two separate bodies. The Hindu wedding follows the Vedic Marriage Ceremony. This consists of a few stages, the Swagatam, Madhuparka, Kaya Aagman, Jai Mala and Sarva Deva Poojan. The Swagatam is the arrival of the groom. The groom is escorted to the entrance of the wedding venue where his mother in law waits to welcome him. He seeks her blessings and performs his aarti, a small ritual taken place to ward off any evil spirits or bad luck. The groom then steps forward to crush a cocount, this symbolises the groom having the strength and ability to overcome any obstacles the couple may face in their married life. The Madhuparka is when the brides father offers the groom a drink, this is meant to be symbolic of the sweetening of relations between the two families. The Kanya Aagman is the arrival of the bride, and the marriage ceremony now begins. The the Jai Mala takes place which is simply the couple garland each other. Lastly the Sarva Deva Poojan, invoking the blessings of Lord Ganesh and praying to remove any obstacles and darkness from the newly wedded couples married life.

The Sikh Wedding ceremony is known as ‘Anand Karaj’. This means ‘Blissful Union’. The Anand Karaj ceremony can be performed at any Sikh temple or even at home. It takes place in the presence of parents, relatives and friends. The ceremony usually takes no more than a few hours. Just like many weddings, the engagement ceremony called the Kurmai is performed around about a week before the wedding. This is simply the two families coming together, exchanging gifts and promises of marriage. The bride and groom exchange rings, proclaiming eternal love. After the engagement, close female relatives from the groom’s side visit the girl’s house and present her with a wedding veil, traditional suit, and other jewellery. The boy’s mother puts a little mehndi on the bride’s pal and this declares her engaged. The Sikh wedding also consists of pre wedding rituals. In the Myah ritual, the bride and groom are both cleansed. Their hands, feet and faces are massaged with flour, oil and tamarind powder to purify them for the married life that is rapidly approaching. Similarly to the muslim wedding, the Sikh wedding also has a mehndi. This is where the hands and feet of the bride are patterned with a paste of henna, oil and lemon juice. It is believed that the mehndi ki raat strengthens the love in a marriage. After this, there is the chooda ceremony which is where the bride has to wear 21 red and cream ivory bangles. Ornaments are then tied to the bangles, the purpose of this is to make housework impossible. Also in hiddu weddings, it is requested for the new bride to cook for her new family as soon as she enters the house, Sikh weddings do not believe in that, they give time to the bride to bond with her new family first. The Naha Dhoi is the final ceremony of getting the bride and groom ready for the wedding, they both get dressed in their own homes. The families all dress in colourful attire, eagerly anticipating the joyous wedding bringing two souls together.

To see a variety of Asian traditions attend the Premier Asian Wedding Show taking place on Sunday 20th November 2011, Midland Hotel, Peter Street, Manchester M60 2DS www.premierasianweddingshow.co.uk