27 January 2008 – Ranchi

Yesterday was the marriage ceremony.  During the day Sarad took me to get a Sherwani and Churidar pyjama allowing me to look the part for the occasion.  It was red with stylish gold and orange embroidery and sequins.  I think I was looking pretty hot in the gear.  We went on to the wedding ceremony where I first met 4 young cousins of Sarad who were really cute.  I found myself playing multiple games of hide and seek with them and a word game called ATLAS, where one names a place and then the next person must name one beginning with its last letter.

 

The marriage took place at a venue with a couple of halls and an outside dance area.  All the bride’s guests were there first to start the celebrations.  Outside there was lots of food and a DJ playing music for everyone to dance on the dance floor.  The kids were first on doing their routines and general crazy dancing.  But before long many people had turned up and everyone was being ushered up to join in.  Old danced with the young, rich with poor and in this case English with Indian.  I really felt like a celebrity as Ranchi is a small place and most young people had never met an English man.  The younger ones all wanted pictures with me.

 

After celebrating with the bride’s guests we heard fireworks going off which is the signal that the groom is arriving with his guests.  They arrived in a procession playing instruments and dancing in the street.  Just as the groom got to the last stretch hundreds of firecrackers were let off in the road leading the way.  The groom arrived with dancing guests and was able to take his thrown with his wife to be.  Before the two can become husband and wife however, the bride and groom must put garlands over each other to signal their intension.  It is the tradition that the best friend’s of the groom and the family of the bridge try to stop this.  In this case the groom’s friends put him on their shoulders so the bride could not reach. 

 

Once the garlands are on the couple moved to a canopy where they said mantras and perform rituals.  This takes a couple of hours and so the guests are able to go off, chat and have more food.  In the final part of the ceremony a fire is lit to signal the marriage will be pure.  Both were finally wedded at 2 am and able to go and eat together.  This was probably most welcome as they had been fasting all day.  Around this time the last of the 500 or so guests, including myself, made their way home.