Friday, August 28, 2009

A simple wedding

Yesterday I traveled to Guruvayur temple, Kerala for one of my friend's wedding. My mom reminded me that, I'm going to the temple exactly after 24 years. So ideally I would take this my first visit I can remember. :) It was a Malayali wedding that I attended and I really loved the way the whole ceremony went.

Step 0: Get the bride and groom dressed up for the occasion.
Step 1: Wait in the temple's wedding queue. Yes, there are multiple podiums outside the temple where lot of weddings happen on a given day.
Step 2: Get on the podium, the chief priest will do a small ceremony and the groom ties the mangalyam (sacred rope) to the bride and pray to lord Guruvayurappan for their well being. That's it, click few snaps and you are done. Approx time 5-8 minutes for each couple.
Step 3: Walk to the nearest wedding reception hall that's already booked.
Step 4: Exchange rings, Flowers and round the sacred grains and lamps that were kept on the stage. Finally sign the registration papers. :) Its done again. Approx time 30-60 minutes.

Then its left of the members of the family and friends to give fruit and milk to the couple. Finally each of them coming to the podium for a photo session. The whole thing called wedding is done. How simple, neat and crisp.

Instead of complex long chanting mantras, burning fire, smoke, asking the bride to change the Saree every one hour, occupying a huge wedding hall for two days, the grooms horse ride the previous day and the numerous other small ceremonies that happen, its sometimes good to keep things simple. Spending so much on the materials for the wedding. Literally the bride and groom become so tired by the end of the day. Its agreed that these are traditions in many families and they did not want this to fade out and every parent will wish their children to get married auspiciously.

Still this is something many families can think about following, except the loads of gold that the bride wears. ;)

2 comments:

Jency said...

Good thought...

Vijesh said...

@Jency Thanks :)