It's time to get married!

Hold on... this is not about me.

After spending more than 7 months in India. I realize that this month is time for everyone to get married. My friend invited me to Chittaranjan, around 7 hours from my place, to attend his sister's wedding. Irina, Modeste and I went there by train. I was supper dupper excited, because it was my first time to travel with friends. We left Ranchi at 10 in the evening. We went to railway station by school car. Dean and his wife joined us together in the car. They were going for another wedding also. In the car, we were talking about culture and wedding tradition in our country.

In the train I met other people who also would attend one wedding party. My train delayed around 40 minutes, so we reached at 6 in the next morning. Now, I got used to travel in Indian train. Modeste, from Ivory cost couldn't enjoy at all. I though, I was the only one who enjoy our travel.

In the morning when we reached, they were doing a ceremonial to take water from the river. I joined them and I could see some people also were taking water for wedding ceremony. So, maybe this is wedding session in India.

In Indonesia, usually many people will get married before Ramadhan. In Russia itself, there is no special moment to get married. Irina said, even in the winter people will celebrate married. They usually prefer when they will have special date. It is like 12 December 2012 or 11 November 2011. So, it will be special date for them. The most important thing that most of Russian avoid to get married in May. They believe that if you were born or get married in May you will be suffer during whole life. And Russia wedding will be very simple. Even some people only register their wedding and then they will go to restaurant and celebrate with family.

Let's compare this things with Indian wedding. Indian wedding is like Indonesian wedding. It takes many days and spend much money. Russian wedding also can be really expensive, but it only takes one day. They prefer to spend their money for honeymoon.

Love story in India is also really interesting. If most of people are married because they love each other, in India most of them go for arranged married. Some people are agree about arranged married because they think that married is not only about a woman and a man. It is also about two family which will live together. People who disagree about arranged married usually because they have had love with someone else and couldn't live with another one. They think how they could live with the one that they don't love.

I am the lucky one. I have to go for both married. I will love someone and tell to my parents then they will arrange for me.

Back to the story about Indian wedding. We started the wedding at 8 o'clock in the evening. The bride was wearing a traditional clothes and I can see some girls really looks beautiful with fancy dress. Irina wore saree and she looked fabolous. I really enjoyed the party because I could eat many delicious food. I took ice cream twice and enjoyed chicken momo, special non veg snack in India. As you know that it is quite difficult to find non veg food in Indian party. Because most of them are Hindu and they don't eat beef or meat at all.

The party was really good. Usually I just saw all these things in movie. But this time I saw all the process directly. They started the wedding since morning till 3 a.m in the next day. The party took really long time. First, after the bride reached the hall, all people came and took her pictures also they gave some presents. After that the groom came with fancy car and the bride family welcome him. Then the couple sat separately in different room. After that, a woman from government office came with all documents and the couple registered their marriage in goverment. I was really tired and couldn't see the whole process. I just stayed till they made some rounds around the fire. After that I went home and slept.

In the morning I met the couple in the house. We gave the present. After that I went to post office to send my package. They played the game in the afternoon. The couple tried to find the ring in mud. I really enjoyed the ritual. It was fun.

In the evening around 5 p.m, the bride went to the groom's house. Everyone said goodbye and cried. This ceremony was symbol that now she is not only a daughter for father but also a wife for husband. The couple were sitting and every family gave bless to them.

While people were crying, other people are also celebrating a marriage party near from our house. It seems, it is time in India to get married.

It was exciting to see almost the whole ceremony. People said that, it was only west bengal tradition. If I will go to other parts of India, I will see different culture.

It is same like Indonesia. We have different ritual for different places in Indonesia. Wedding is one of many things the way people describe the culture. It is interesting because it mixture among culture, religion and government law.
That was the story about one of Indian wedding. See you in the next story!