One of our neighbors got married today! On Wednesday I went over to her house with my host mom to get some Mehendi done. It's henna, but they put it all on the inside and outside of your hands. The bride got her feet and arms fully covered, and it looked absolutely amazing, but the poor thing had to sit there for 4 hours without moving. I couldn't even handle two with no hand use. I now can appreciate bears trying to open round door handles, it's not easy!
Friday was the actual wedding, and I was lucky enough to skip school for it. My host mom draped a sari for me, pinned it so it wouldn't fall down, and gave me some beautiful gold jewelry. After the hour and a half it took to get ready, we went to the wedding hall which was beautifully decorated with garlands of flowers and decorations. We were early for the ceremony so we ate breakfast and toured the small temple next door. I was actually on stage for some most of the ceremony, just watching from the sidelines. Before the bride arrives (she doesn't walk down the aisle), the groom walks off stage and pretends that he doesn't want to get married and remain a bachelor. The bride's parents will go after him and tempt him with gifts so he goes back inside. The coolest part, I thought, was at the beginning a large piece of fabric was held between the bride and groom and they each were holding a handful of dry rice. The first one to throw the rice on the other when the fabric was taken down would be the dominant one in the relationship. They all sat down for the bride and groom to each wash the feet of their parents and accepted their blessings.
The Indian version of a wedding ring is a gold chain which the bride wears as long as she is married and is never supposed to take off. Directly after this happened the entire audience threw a small handful of dry rice onto the couple. Vows are pretty similar, except of course they say them in Sanskrit. This wedding went on for about an hour, but there are some huge ones that last forever. It will be a 1-2 week celebration filled with food, dancing, functions, love, family, and laughter. I'm thinking about finding a nice Indian man when I'm older :)
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