Wedding Ceremony: Procession

    The wedding ceremony traditionally begins with a procession of the groom and his family from wherever they are staying to the marriage hall where the bride and her family are staying. This leads to loud parades on the city streets that often block traffic. But I'm pretty sure they have to have a permit from the city before they start dancing their way through the neighborhood. We had a mini-procession for our wedding because I only had 5 people from my family that were able to attend. This meant that we all stayed in the same location instead of two separate halls, and therefore, Deepal's family processed from the parking lot of the hall to the front entrance. hehe.

     I didn't get to watch any of these proceedings actually because I was supposed to wait in the hall for Deepal to come. So, I get to see these pictures just like you do, without much context. :) 

To start things off, Deepal's mother embraces him, gives him a tikka, and apparently a golden "egg:"
  

Then it's the long walk from the parking lot to the front entrance with much singing and general rejoicing. There's supposed to be dancing, too, but I didn't see any evidence of dancing in the pictures:

Traditionally, the groom is supposed to ride a white horse in the procession. But under the circumstances it didn't make sense. ;)










After about a minute of walking the procession arrives at the front entrance where all of my family is standing and waiting to receive them:

I know what you're thinking: "What a large brown family you have!" Very generously and kindly many of Deepal's family's friends stayed behind to represent my family so that a large happy group would be there to welcome the procession. The symbolism of the tradition made them all quite literally members of my family. 


Here is even one of Deepal's aunts who stayed behind to help welcome the procession, Renu Kaki (dressed in blue and pink). And you can see Deepal's best friends: Sudeep and Sachin who also gladly formed part of my family. That really meant a lot to me.

When the procession reached the bottom of the stairs, Renu Kaki told my mother to shout, "potato salad!" to greet the groom and his family. hehehe :) At least that's what it sounded like to my mother...







  

 Here comes Deepal's family, greeted by joyful shouts of "Potato Salad!" : 

Here is Sachin giving Pa one of the necklaces that Ma painstakingly made before the wedding for my mother to give away.   

This is Bob and Pa making a bridge for Ma and my mom to go under. Can't say I know the meaning behind them doing this.

Then apparently my mom gave Bob a tikka. Again not sure about the significance, but tikkas seem to be a general go-to action at any moment in a ceremony.

Bob and Pa, both with tikkas. Probably Ma gave one to Pa. ?? They are the bridge-makers.











Then my mother gave a saree to Ma.. sort of. ;) "Sort of" because Ma actually picked it out and bought it and had someone give it to my mother to give to Ma. hehe.. Another example of how Deepal's family took care of us and all our traditional obligations in the wedding.

Here Deepal's family and friends lovingly and insistently direct my mother in what she's supposed to do to welcome Deepal and accept him as her son-in-law:

Again, I don't know what the significance of this is, but it does look like everyone was having fun while they made my mother and Deepal do it:

Taking it's symbolism from the master leading the bull to the tether the mother-in-law is supposed to lead her new son-in-law into the hall. There are varying opinions of how she should do this. Some say to lead him by the nose:

Others say to lead him by the scarf: The fact that my mother did both is a testament to how everyone tells you what to do at once and they don't always agree with each other. ;)

I guess he did use the sword for something! I thought it was just a fun prop. ...which I still think it mostly was. ;)  He had to touch the garland seven times before entering. hehehe, and my mother was blissfully ignorant of what was going on behind her. They forgot to tell her to stop, so she just kept pulling on him till they remembered to tell her. Why did he have to touch the garland 7x you ask? 

Well, don't ask Deepal he doesn't know either. : P