Happy November everyone!!! There's nothing too happy about today as I am leaving New Delhi tonight (I am going to be in Mumbai for the next month or so, which I will talk about later on in another post) and will be leaving my very sweet host parents, whom I have grown very attached to. However, In the past couple of weeks (all final exams and papers aside) I have experienced some very neat things here that are all very true to the heart of India, today I will share two of them with you: Diwali and a traditional Indian marriage.
The first, Diwali, was the Indian new year as per Hindu tradition and actually took place in the last week of October, a whole three weeks back. Being the Indian New Year, Diwali is a week-long celebration of family, friendship and love. Families come together from wherever they may be, friends visit each other's homes and they give each other gifts. These gifts can be nuts or dried fruits (which are quite expensive here and thus coveted), chocolates, tech gadgets, money, and most traditionally mitai - the Indian sweets which are sure to fill your tummy with flowery, sugary, buttery goodness (they may or may not be fried and then dunked in syrup, ti's up to you). On the actual day of Diwali (designated by the phases of the moon) houses are completely decorated in what you understand to be Christmas lights and diyas (small pots with candles in them). The family comes together at night to perform a puja (refer to earlier post for explanation) for Ganesh and Lakshmi, Hindu God and Goddess of success and wealth/prosperity respectively; you pray for a little bit, decorate the altar with garlands and place money in front of the altar (typically silver coins), burn some candles, and eat some sort of pashaad (blessed food) in the gods' honor. We had jalebi in some cold milk and it was delicious. Auntie and Uncle then encouraged us to make use of all the sparklers they had bought for us, while everyone else on the block and really all of India lit fireworks well into the A.M. Quite a few fireworks actually went off a couple of feet from me, I made no attempt to hide the fear in my eyes. My roommate thought it was hilarious and was shocked that I never did this in the U.S. It was a lot of fun and I can say that I really felt like I was breathing happiness all through Diwali season, which may still be going on as it's difficult to tell when a holiday has actually ended in India. Most kids get 5 or 6 days off of school for Diwali in India, because I am studying with an American institution I got none...not that I'm bitter or anything....
Anyway, fun event number two, an Indian shadi (marriage) took place just two days ago. My host sister's best friend was getting married so naturally my roommate and I tagged along. For those of you that may not know, Indian marriages are really long and elaborate, they literally last for days because of course you have the engagement ceremony, the mehendi day for the bride, the marriage and the reception - the last two may or may not be on held on the same day. My roommate and I attended all but the engagement ceremony and I was definitely blown away. The mehendi is the night before where the bride, her family and closest friends get together to celebrate before the wedding and apply the bride and her loved ones' mehendi (henna, just in case you haven't read the previous post). Aside from the cilantro, tres leches, corn cake thing we were forced to eat, it was really fun. Dinner was delicious, the uncles' dancing was quite amusing, and Tania and I were invited to apply some mehendi for the wedding as well! The next night we trekked over to Lalit Gardens for what would be an extremely fun reception. It was a giant green field decorated beautifully with magical lights; the sides were lined with every Indian street food cart you could imagine (I blame my premature death on this), where the back of the garden had an even more intense buffet. Yes, all the food was amazing but that wasn't all that there was to be seen. We paid a visit to the bride in one of the most ornate and beautiful pieces of clothing I have ever seen; her outfit in the traditional Indian bridal colors (red, gold and green) was beaded and embellished til you could no more, the stacks of bangles on her arms almost covered the mehendi that went up to her elbows and there was so much gold hanging from her that she could barely stand. In fact, the second she stood up to greet us everyone scolded her for standing. Just to give you an idea of this, the gold hoop that serves as the nose piercing is usually tied to her veil so that the weight won't tear her nose off. Yes, that's a true story right there.
As for the actually ceremony, you don't just sit around and watch the priest marry the bride and groom; there are many traditions that must be carried out. The groom arrives on either a horse or an elephant (in Delhi's unfortunate case, it's usually a horse) along with his posse and band. The groom's family and the bride's family exchange pleasantries and dance for a little bit at the entrance. The groom and co. then attempts to cross the threshold but is stopped by the bride's sisters and female relatives.They argue a bit about his eligibility, they refuse to let him in until he bribes them and they feed him some mitai and throw rose petals on him and the entire crew behind him. It was actually really amusing. The bride is then revealed and more pleasantries are exchanged before the ceremony is performed under the moonlight at appx. 2am. Basically, it's an ordeal and a half. But it's a beautiful ordeal. You see how nervous the bride is and how shy the groom is and you feel it. You feel the love.
I thought I'd share both of these experiences with you because yesterday when walking through Khan Market (tourist central) there was a powder blue power box with white graffiti on it that caught my attention. All it said was "Love is here." Well, it got me thinking about the past few weeks of my life in India and I must agree; love is here.
The first, Diwali, was the Indian new year as per Hindu tradition and actually took place in the last week of October, a whole three weeks back. Being the Indian New Year, Diwali is a week-long celebration of family, friendship and love. Families come together from wherever they may be, friends visit each other's homes and they give each other gifts. These gifts can be nuts or dried fruits (which are quite expensive here and thus coveted), chocolates, tech gadgets, money, and most traditionally mitai - the Indian sweets which are sure to fill your tummy with flowery, sugary, buttery goodness (they may or may not be fried and then dunked in syrup, ti's up to you). On the actual day of Diwali (designated by the phases of the moon) houses are completely decorated in what you understand to be Christmas lights and diyas (small pots with candles in them). The family comes together at night to perform a puja (refer to earlier post for explanation) for Ganesh and Lakshmi, Hindu God and Goddess of success and wealth/prosperity respectively; you pray for a little bit, decorate the altar with garlands and place money in front of the altar (typically silver coins), burn some candles, and eat some sort of pashaad (blessed food) in the gods' honor. We had jalebi in some cold milk and it was delicious. Auntie and Uncle then encouraged us to make use of all the sparklers they had bought for us, while everyone else on the block and really all of India lit fireworks well into the A.M. Quite a few fireworks actually went off a couple of feet from me, I made no attempt to hide the fear in my eyes. My roommate thought it was hilarious and was shocked that I never did this in the U.S. It was a lot of fun and I can say that I really felt like I was breathing happiness all through Diwali season, which may still be going on as it's difficult to tell when a holiday has actually ended in India. Most kids get 5 or 6 days off of school for Diwali in India, because I am studying with an American institution I got none...not that I'm bitter or anything....
Anyway, fun event number two, an Indian shadi (marriage) took place just two days ago. My host sister's best friend was getting married so naturally my roommate and I tagged along. For those of you that may not know, Indian marriages are really long and elaborate, they literally last for days because of course you have the engagement ceremony, the mehendi day for the bride, the marriage and the reception - the last two may or may not be on held on the same day. My roommate and I attended all but the engagement ceremony and I was definitely blown away. The mehendi is the night before where the bride, her family and closest friends get together to celebrate before the wedding and apply the bride and her loved ones' mehendi (henna, just in case you haven't read the previous post). Aside from the cilantro, tres leches, corn cake thing we were forced to eat, it was really fun. Dinner was delicious, the uncles' dancing was quite amusing, and Tania and I were invited to apply some mehendi for the wedding as well! The next night we trekked over to Lalit Gardens for what would be an extremely fun reception. It was a giant green field decorated beautifully with magical lights; the sides were lined with every Indian street food cart you could imagine (I blame my premature death on this), where the back of the garden had an even more intense buffet. Yes, all the food was amazing but that wasn't all that there was to be seen. We paid a visit to the bride in one of the most ornate and beautiful pieces of clothing I have ever seen; her outfit in the traditional Indian bridal colors (red, gold and green) was beaded and embellished til you could no more, the stacks of bangles on her arms almost covered the mehendi that went up to her elbows and there was so much gold hanging from her that she could barely stand. In fact, the second she stood up to greet us everyone scolded her for standing. Just to give you an idea of this, the gold hoop that serves as the nose piercing is usually tied to her veil so that the weight won't tear her nose off. Yes, that's a true story right there.
As for the actually ceremony, you don't just sit around and watch the priest marry the bride and groom; there are many traditions that must be carried out. The groom arrives on either a horse or an elephant (in Delhi's unfortunate case, it's usually a horse) along with his posse and band. The groom's family and the bride's family exchange pleasantries and dance for a little bit at the entrance. The groom and co. then attempts to cross the threshold but is stopped by the bride's sisters and female relatives.They argue a bit about his eligibility, they refuse to let him in until he bribes them and they feed him some mitai and throw rose petals on him and the entire crew behind him. It was actually really amusing. The bride is then revealed and more pleasantries are exchanged before the ceremony is performed under the moonlight at appx. 2am. Basically, it's an ordeal and a half. But it's a beautiful ordeal. You see how nervous the bride is and how shy the groom is and you feel it. You feel the love.
I thought I'd share both of these experiences with you because yesterday when walking through Khan Market (tourist central) there was a powder blue power box with white graffiti on it that caught my attention. All it said was "Love is here." Well, it got me thinking about the past few weeks of my life in India and I must agree; love is here.
Love, Eli
