Our daughter Meghan got married in September as described in another post on this site. Her husband, Ajay, is from India. So it was important for Meghan and Ajay to also have a marriage ceremony in India, and the wedding was held on December 4th.
I was fortunate to join them for the event, flying from Eugene to Seattle (where they live) and then flying together to Amsterdam, and then on to New Delhi. From New Delhi we then had a 6 hour ride in a van to Chandigarh, Ajay's family home. The entire journey for me having left from Eugene, was on the order of 32 hours.
We stayed with Ajay's parents, gaining an immediate introduction into everyday Indian life. While Ajay's parents speak English well, much of the conversation was in Hindi, leaving Meghan and me scratching our heads a lot of the time. We typically ate curried vegetables with rice for our meals.
The wedding ceremony was actually a series of ceremonies held over the space of three days! The dates for these events are typically selected using astrological considerations, and it is rather unusual that ll three of these ceremoneis could be held on three consecutive days- lucky for me, trying to squeeze it all into a one-week trip.
The first day is about cleansing and preparation. Ajay's father, Ajay, Meghan and I all participated in separate ceremonies representing spiritual cleansing, and in my case, relinquishing my daughter. All three days' ceremonies involved a fire and various grain offerings. The second day was really focused on Ajay- his preparation for marriage and cementing his Hindu faith.
The third day was the wedding ceremony itself and reception. Unlike our traditions, the reception took place indoors at the same time the wedding ceremony (about 3 hours) took place outside around a fire pit. The wedding ceremony primarily revolved around me as the bride's father giving her to her husband.
Throughout all three days, friends and family came to participate, and many stayed overnight for two nights in the wedding facility.
This trip was a very rich experience with far too much to cover in a simple blog post like this. But it provides a bit of background as you look at the pictures. Thanks for visiting!