The Great Punjabi Wedding

The Great Punjabi Wedding – a time for music and dance, rich food soaked in butter, and sweets dripping in syrup popped from hand to mouth. A time when mothers shed copious tears while brides sit with heroic smiles through hours of make-up and mehendi, wrapped in silk and heavy with gold. A time for uninhibited dancing and covert romance, lavish gifts exchanged over the murmur of family banter and gossip. A time, in fact, of gargantuan celebration around the compact, self-sufficient couple that forms its core.

Over the last few decades Punjabi weddings have become a part of pan-Indian popular culture. In part, this is thanks to Bollywood. Bombay’s film industry found a perfect complement to its own larger than life portrayal of the world in Punjab’s understanding of weddings.

A Punjabi wedding in full swing.

So, for decades, movie weddings have dictated many aspects of such celebration, from the songs to which guests will dance, the design of the elaborate lehenga the bride will wear.

As young men formulate intricate plans to gate-crash the exclusively female sangeet ceremony, young girls and their mothers and aunts come together to sing songs and pass the secrets of married life from generation to generation.

Sangeet Ceremony

The ghodi, or white mare on which groom rides to his beloved is slowly becoming ubiquitous from north to south; and swaying processions of merry-makers wind their way through broad city streets and narrow village lanes alike.

The dark orange of mehendi spread in ornate patterns on the bride’s hand evokes a familiar sense of separation, loss and new beginnings; and songs in which she grieves for the loss of her father’s house will not leave many Indian eyes dry.

And so marriages seasons come and go – bands are hired, and cooks prepare bubbling curries in cauldrons; extravagant tents are erected and younger cousins rehearse dance steps; and, at the event’s centre, the bride and groom, sleepless, tense and excited, watch the colours and scents of the most splendid day of their lives swirl around them, waft upwards and disappear into the night.

For more on the city, pick up Goodearth Publications: Punjab Travel Guide ISBN 9789380262178

(Available at all leading outlets)

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