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| Jan 06, 2007 10:23 am |
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Sindhi weddings |
Pushpa Moorjani
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Sindhi weddings are amazing! It is fun especially, when it is a love-cum-arranged marriage. Everybody is happy. Parents are happy that they didn’t have to go through the long procedure of meeting the endless matchmakers, and children are happy that they were able to convince their parents of their independent choice. Moreover, parents are happy that they can celebrate the occasion in their own traditional style.
In the days gone by, (my mom would often relate it to me)all the marriage rituals would take place at home or in the dharamshalas. A huge hall (dharamshala) was rented out where all the guests would stay together and the food was served all day. All the near and far relatives and friends were invited to the house. Only men attended the weddings while the women stayed at home and cooked the delicious meals. Women had great time cutting, cooking and gossiping and singing. As marriage was a festive event in the communal life, all sorts of mirth and amusements were associated with it in form of feasts, music, dance, etc.
Decoration of the house and adornment of the bride and the bridegroom would express aesthetic motives natural to any important event in social life. The event would go on for a week with traditional food and singing and festivities in the air.
Today, however, most of the ceremonies are held in hotels. Everybody is invited and women attend the marriages too. All the friends and relatives prefer to stay in the hotels because everybody needs their privacy and the space for dressing up for the occasions and there are very few ceremonies that are performed at home. The enjoyment that I would have during those marriages (when I was in teens), teasing, singing, going for long rides in the middle of the night with many cousins, all that is missing now. All the latest music and western dance have replaced the tradition singing and dancing.All we do at the marriages now a days is show off our ornaments and our expensive dresses (that we cannot wear more than once)and eat and drink and dance to loud music. Private Reply to Pushpa Moorjani (new win) |
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