Indian Wedding customs And Their Meaning

There are innumerable reasons, why Indian marriages are more appealing than other weddings. An Indian Wedding is full of customs, rituals and traditions which are followed by people blindly without even knowing them. Every custom or ritual has its own meaning. Right from wedding invitations to the Bidai ceremony, every custom, every tradition has a meaning of its own. These meanings are derived from our ancestors and the generation today is modifying these traditions according to their own convenience.

There is lot of spice in the customs of Indian wedding. Let us have a look at some of the customs. The first is the wedding invitations. The first wedding card is sent to the Gods and Goddesses summoning them to bless the couple. Mandap which is a decorated canopy supported by four pillars under which bride and groom are made to sit, to perform all the rituals in front of sacred fire. Mandap is decorated with bright and lively colors which signifies the radiance that marriage is going to bring in their life.

Mehendi: A day prior to the wedding, the bride and other female members of the family put heena on their hands, commonly called mehendi with different designs and patterns. The bride gets the best women to put mehandi on her palm, hands and legs and it is the best design of the mehandi that is put on her. The best part about this custom is both the bride and groom write their partner’s name in their hand in hidden manner. They are asked to search their respective names on their partner’s hand and whosoever searches it first is believed to be more dominating. It has been believed since the time the custom of mehndi originated that the darker the color of mehndi in one’s hand the more is the love for you in your partner’s heart.

The baraat is all about dancing as much as you can. In baraat, the dulha or the groom rides on a white lady horse and all the baraati’s i.e all the friends and relatives dance with full energy on the sound of the drum. T Milni, the English meaning of which means merger. Once the baraat reaches at the venue, the bride’s family greets the guests with garlands, flowers and gifts. Then similar way of greeting is done by the groom’s family. There is also a Shoe Hiding Game. When the bride and Groom sit for pheras, they both remove their footwear’s before sitting in the mandap. As per the tradition, the bride’s sisters or friends will hide the shoes of groom and when the pheras are over, groom has to fulfill the demands of them in return for shoes.

All these wedding traditions have a meaning of their own and all these invite participation of both the families and their relatives and friends. With the help of wedding invitation, the bride and the groom’s family invites their guests and thus the wedding becomes a tool of social bonding. Thus, the customs are not just customs but these have an in depth meaning as well.