The Big Fat Indian wedding is a mini festival to say the least. One ritual seamlessly slips into the other and before we lose ourselves in the merry maze, let’s put the spotlight on the event that heralds them. The Haldi ceremony. It is an event which encompasses all the aspects of a marriage by embracing each of its elements. The right commencement for the rightful culmination.
The ‘Turmeric Tryst’ as I would like to call it is a “yellow ceremony”. Indeed it reflects all that the bright colour stands for. It signifies good health, warm hearts and boundless joy. It has the trappings of the Sun, which is the prime source of energy in our lives. Now, isn’t that what a marriage is all about?
In the morning of the wedding day or at times, the day before the big event, the haldi ceremony takes place. It is a pre-wedding ‘rasam’ in which haldi, mostly seasoned with oil and sometimes with sandalwood powder and milk, is playfully smeared on the faces and bodies of the about-to-be bride and groom by their relatives and friends. It is diversified by the lavish showering of marigold flowers and rose petals on the pair till they are happily ready for the ritualistic water bath, which cleanses them for the grand event that lies ahead. After all, haldi is regarded as an auspicious ingredient in every Indian household and finds an indisputable importance in every single ceremony of the Indians. On a lighter note, it adds the much-needed sparkle to the faces and future of the couple who savours its element and essence.
I’m certain that if a camera could confess, it would admit that this is the event of the entire wedding that it loves to capture the most. Precisely due to the ravenous riot of colours and the sheer spontaneity of the affair. In fact, the fun quotient of the occasion is so high and each move of every participant, so unpredictable that the shutterbug can’t help but keep clicking.
Interestingly, the ‘ubtan’, another endearing way of calling the custom is not confined to the couple only but pulls in everyone who is around. In fact, once the ritual is done with, the merrymaking starts. And so you could see not only the bride being teased and the groom being taunted but also aunts, cousins, friends and who-knows-who playing haldi even among themselves. Usually it is the caress of elders who blesses the couple with the smear but more often than not, it is the boisterous smudge of buddies that make the event a vivacious one.
“Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” After all, where would these words of Maya Angelou come alive more fully than in the Haldi ceremony of an Indian marriage?
Author : Promita Banerjee Nag