Family Wedding...
September 7, 2009
It cannot have been an easy thing to organize a traditional Indian wedding (with the essentials of a
and a
in the remote mountain resort of
…. and include such details as jasmine garlands flown in all the way from Chennai…but AD and MN’s parents managed this miracle!
Kirkwood is a particularly beautiful part of
it’s at nearly 10,000 ft elevation, and its a wonderful setting for a wedding….we started with a misty sunrise….
Here's the groom, with his best man and his parents, arriving at the wedding venue, (where a special "mantap" had been brought up from Reno and set up especially):
The bride, too, is ready to meet the groom...surrounded by her relatives!
The bride and groom exchange garlands, in the mAlai mAttral ceremony:
They then sit in the mantap, and the bride's parents give her the 9-yard saree to change into, and bless the couple:
A few relatives help the bride wear the 9 yard saree:
The bride and groom together light the sacrificial fire,
agni
which, being pure and incorruptible, is the witness to every Hindu wedding:
The couple prepare to make seven perambulations around the fire, called the saptha padi or the sAth phErA:
Here are the feet that will go around the fire together, which will take seven steps together, and will walk together for the rest of their lives:
The groom's sister ties two more knots after the first one that the groom makes, to the sacred thread that he ties around the bride's neck, in the mAngalya dhAraNam ceremony:
They then undergo the north Indian Odhni ceremony:
The bride and groom then touch the grinding stone, a symbol of permanence and stability, in the
shilArOhaNam ceremony:'
The bride's brother helps them offer puffed rice to the fire in the lAja hOma ceremony:
The sun goes down on the wedding day:
And we all were delighted that the day ended with the beauty of the sun on the top of the bluff, which is called an
A wonderful wedding, celebrating an ancient culture, in a land far away!