Wedding Planner

Destination - Sindhi Wedding

ORIGIN

The Sindhi's are a rich community and are focused mainly in business, manufacturing and trading. Sindhi weddings are very lavish and grand, but surprisingly their ceremonies and rituals are very minimal. So let us take a look at Sindhi engagement and wedding functions.

ENGAGEMENT / KACCHI MISRI

When a marriage is fixed, a gathering of the two families - the boy and the girl, is held. It serves the duel purpose of getting to know each other and announcing the engagement to the community. Traditionally, on this day, only the immediate family members are invited and there is no exchange of rings between the couple. A small Shagun ceremony, known as Karawa Shagun is held,at which the couple wears clothes, sent by their respective in laws.
On the day of Karawa Shagun. a special Suji Sheera is cooked in the house. This is later served to the family members as prasad.

During the main ceremony, the boy's sister covers the girl's head with a red coloured dupatta and feeds her sister-in-law to-be with Suji Sheera. All the other relatives, in turn repeat this action of feeding the girl with suji sheera. The couple then exchanges garlands and seeks the blessings of all the elders. Later in the evening the two families have dinner together and the couple cuts a cake. No alcohol or non-vegetarian food is served on this day.

On this day, the mother's of both the boy and the girl decorate fruit baskets or tokras/hampers and send to each other's houses. These hampers are stocked with fruits, dried fruits and mithai/ Indian sweets. Nowadays special tokras are available in the market laden with bottles of ketchup, jams and cheese in addition to the fruits, mithai and dried fruits. At times extra special tokras containing chocolates and chocolate items are sent. The mothers send these hampers to each other's homes. Usually, an odd number of tokras are sent and interestingly, the girl's mother sends more hampers than the boy's mother. The family partakes of the fruit and mithai and distributes the rest to their relatives.

SANGEET

These days a lot of importance is given to the Sangeet ceremony. Professional ghazal singers and dance troupes are invited for this function. The entire family and all their friends are invited to join in the dance. On the day of the sangeet function, the girl wears clothes and jewellery presented to her by her mother. The festivities continue till late into the night. Plenty of snacks are served during the function. Dinner, a very late night affair, is buffet style, with vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare comprising chicken and mutton dishes and a large variety of sweets and ice creams. The merry making continues well after all the guests have left the party.

RING CEREMONY

This ceremony is more of a party than a ceremony because no rituals or customs are followed on this day. On this day the girl wears clothes and jewellery presented to her by her mother-in-law. The boy and the girl exchange rings, cut a cake and toast each other in champagne. Since no puja or shagun this function is held on a day convenient to both families.

The function winds up the with a grand dinner party hosted by the girl's side of the family. Food is both vegetarian and non-vegetarian with a lot of chaats and sweets.

MEHENDI

The mehendi function is held at the girl's house where all her cousins and friends join in the fun and apply mehendi on their hands. The girl adorns her hands and feet with intricate mehendi designs that include her husband's name. On their nuptial night , the husband is expected to look for his name in the designs on her palms. On the day of the mehendi a few women from the boy's family visit the girl, and have a look at her beautifully decorated trousseau on display. They bring along with them a special prasad, which has been made in the boy's house and distributed to all the relatives of the girl present for the ceremony.

GANESH STAPHNA

Two or three days before the marriage a small Ganesh Staphna / puja by a pundit is held at the boy's place. The puja marks the commencement of the wedding celebrations. Once the Ganesh Stapna is performed, the wedding cannot be cancelled under any conditions, even for a death in the immediate family of either the bride or groom. He pundit blesses the boy and makes him wear a mukut / turban, which he will again don on his marriage day.

MARRIAGE CEREMONY

On the morning of the wedding the groom's mother prepares Kadhi Chawal, considered to be a very auspicious sign by Sindhis. All the family members are fed a spoon full of kadhi chawal. Following this,the family leave for the marriage hall. The bride's brother and his wife visit the groom's house in a well-decorated car where the groom's family receives them warmly. This decorated, chauffeur driven car is kept back for the exclusive use of the groom. It is looked up on as an invitation from the girl's family to the groom.

As with all Hindu marriages, Sindhi marriage too, are fixed as per the Muhurat or auspicious time and are usually in the mornings. The groom leaves for the wedding hall with the barat. It stops at a nearby temple before proceeding to the hall. At the hall, the couple is made to stand next to each other and their feet are dipped in a thali / plate of milk. The girl's mother then washes and wipes the couple's feet. The bride is then taken to a dressing room where the ladies from the groom's family deck her in all her wedding jewellery. Her in-laws give the jewellery the bride wears on her wedding day. The girl' wears a bright red salwar kurta and the boy is attired in a churidar kurta.

The pundit then engages the couple in a game involving a cotton ball and follows this with the recitation of the wedding mantras. The couple now take the mandatory seven pheras around the holy fire/ agni. The groom applies sindhoor /red powder mark in the girl's hair, and ties a mangal sutra / marriage necklace on her neck. The pheras completed, the couple seek the blessings of all the elders of the families.

All through the wedding ceremony the groom's brother-in-law sits next to him with a sword. It is believed that he guards the groom from all evil and helps the wedding ceremony wind up peacefully. The groom's mother then gives her son-in-law a gift for guarding her son.

NAMAK KA SHAGUN

After the completion of the wedding ceremony the bride is made to do the Namak ka Shagun. A big thali filled with rock salt is held out in front of her. She is then asked to pick up the salt with both her hands and in turn place it into the relatives' hands one by one. As soon as she places the salt in a relative's hand, the relative immediately gives it back to her in the same manner. It is compulsory for the bride to do this with all her in-laws. It is believed that if the bride spills a lot of salt during the exchange with the relatives, she will not get along well with that particular relative. Poor girl! A newly wedded bride out of sheer nervousness ends up spilling more salt than she otherwise would. However, customs are customs and they are carried out irrespective of the bride's nervousness.

BIDAI / FAREWELL

After the girl's bids farewell to her relatives and parents the couple are seated in the decorated car earlier sent by the girl's father. Initially the car moves slowly as the bride's father literally pushes it up to the gates of the wedding hall. In doing so he is implying to his daughter that she should forget her past life and concentrate on building her future with her husband and in-laws.

RECEPTION

After the wedding the couple comes to their home where all the relatives give the new bride a warm welcome. Later in the evening the bride goes to a beauty parlor to get dressed and joins her husband at the reception hall. The family members and friends assemble to congratulate the couple.
It is time for another buffet dinner where a variety of foods ranging from Moghlai to Chinese to Italian are served. The couple is seated at a beautifully decorated table where all the relatives take turns in feeding them. From the hall the couple heads towards a hotel for their nuptial night accompanied by close family members.

The next day sees the couple at a lunch thrown by the bride's parents at their house. For this lunch at the bride's house, the immediate family members of the groom sometimes accompany the couple. Now that all the nuptial ceremonies and traditions have been completed and complied with, the couple starts their married life and lives happily ever after!!

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