GUJARATI MARRIAGES

The meeting of the two hearts of the bride and groom is the essence of the Gujarati wedding. The wife is seen as one who fulfils her duties to the man faithfully.The Gujarati wedding begins with an extremely fun filled ritual. This is called ‘poccav’. The rituals is that the bindies mother must catch the bridegroom’s nose. During the time, the wedding is officially announced, the groom rubs his nose on the door. His motherinlaw then holds his nose. Next comes the ‘madhupaarka rictual. Here the groom’s feet is washed, and he is given a warm welcome with milk and honey. Meanwhile, the brides sister steals the groom’s shoes and the groom offers her gifts to get his shoes back. Then comes the exchange of garlands. It is called ‘Jay Maala’.The ‘mandap’ for a Gujarati wedding is covered with a white cloth. This portion is called ‘Anthar paat’. It is the bride’s maternal uncle who invites the groom to the mandap. After the kanya dan is over, the couple exchange garlands. A senior member of the family ties s string around the groom’s neck to supposedly cast off the evil eye. There are seven rituals in a Gujarati wedding of which four are dharmam, artham, kaamam and moksham. Later during the ritual called ‘sapthapathy’, the groom touches the toes on the bride’s right leg seven time using the aeronaut. Next cames the sowbhagyavathy. During this custom, all the married woman folk in the family whisper the sowbhagyavathy mantra into the bride’s right ear one by one.The new bride is than welcomed into the groom’s home by his mother with a platter filled with rice grains.This is then placed on the floor near the entrance door and the bride pushes it down with her right leg as she enters. That is symbolic of the entry of Goddess Lakshmi the home. And the wealth she brings with her. And finally, there is a fun filled game. A little sindhooram is mixed with milk is a pot and a few coins and a ring aredropped into it. The bride and groom must then find the ring. They will get seven chances for this and game can be played four times.