caged liberty's Journal, 19 August 2008

FEELING DEPRESSED? WANT TO CHEER UP? ATTEND A PAKISTANI WEDDING!!

Just got back and I am soooooo much happier than I was last week. I guess I just needed to destress and hubbys cousins wedding was the tonic.

South Asian weddings are the bomb - and no alcohol needed!! First there is the traditional pre"Mehndi" (henna)party. This is when families call over female family and friends to have their hands covered with pretty henna designs and spend the night together joking around and dancing. Special food is cooked and all the girls are fed by others because their hands are covered in henna so it feels like royal treatment to get so pampered. Theres always at least one entertainer in the family (here on FS, I nominate BadAndee!) who keeps the whole evening lively, well there was me and another male cousin keeping it real!!

The next night was the actual Mehndi and both families get together to perform little traditions such as placing henna on the bride and grooms hands for luck and then giving them sweets to sweeten their lives. As usual, the party ends with a lot of dancing and noise.

Third event is the "Rukhsati", an event hosted by the girls side. This is a formal dinner and more dancing and then the girl leaves officially for the boys house. There is a lot of traditions here as well such as taking the grooms shoe and requesting money for all the girls sisters and friends in exchange for the shoes return. The brides group made $300 after an initial request of $1000 and a whole lot of playful bargaining down! Of course, we got a piece of the action too, because the grooms sisters then stop entry into the bridal suite until the groom coughs up money, so we also got $300. The bridal suite is decorated with loads and loads of flower garlands (like hawaiian leis) and it truly looked romantic.

Finally, there is one more event hosted by the boys side called the valima. Normally, the bride spends the night with hubby and the next day goes back to her family. Then the next evening (or whenever the valima happens) she returns to live with her hubby permanently and this 'joyful' return is marked by another ceremony.

Of course, these are traditions dating back centuries and a lot has changed since then. The boy and girl stayed in a honeymoon suite at a local hotel instead of going back to the boys home. She didnt go home after the wedding ceremony and they are both back at work already.

It really was a lot of fun and I am going to enjoy the final week before gremlins return. I even may have a new pic for you all..if I can get my camera to work!!!

I am so glad to be back with my FS family and looking forward to getting back to journalling.