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Nepal Wedding
Nepal Wedding
The wedding ceremony is a huge social event. This is a showcase of extraordinary communal values of
the Nepali people. The entire village is the part of the ceremony. All the relatives of both the families,
immediate or distant, and the whole neighborhood are invited! A wedding ceremony is the event of a
lifetime for the two families involved. It easily incurs the greatest one-event-expenditure for the
families, for which they start saving since the day of the birth of their child.
The wedding ceremony extends for around three days, and preparation for which is usually a few weeks.
The kin and clan of the groom assemble at the grooms place to get ready to go to the brides place for
the main event. In most of the cultures, mainly the men travel with the groom for the main event, while
the women stay back and celebrate the evening with Ratyauli, an event where no men are welcome as
women act, dance and play with much inference to sexuality.
The grooms procession is called Janti, which is a decent size parade of either a traditional band (Panche
Baja, a band of five-famous instruments) or a full Brass-Band, followed by the feasting and dancing party
of the groom. The brides family welcomes the Janti with a great feast, after which a series of religious
and social rituals take place, which usually lasts the whole day. Both the bride and the groom are clad
with traditional outfits. Usually, the bride has
ostentatious make up with traditional
temporary tattoos (Mehendi) and gold
jewelry.
The main rituals of the main wedding day are: (1) the Swayambhar, when the couple exchange floral
garlands after the brides parents officially give away their daughter (Kanyadan) to the groom; (2) the
Mandap ceremonies, where the couple pledge to keep their union for seven lives to come by tying a
symbolic knot and walking together around a sacred conflagration of fire for seven times after the
groom puts a mark of red-vermilion powder (Sindur) on top of the brides forehead, which from that
time onwards differentiates the bride as a married women from an unmarried girl; (3) the Anmaune or
the Bidai ceremony, when the wedding party from the brides side bid farewell to the bride, which is
generally an emotional affair with the bride weeping incessantly (This may be a show of true emotion of
getting away from the family and friends, or just a traditional obligation).
The grooms party then returns home with the bride and in most cases, with furniture and other
requisites to set up a new home for the newly-weds, which the groom receives as dowry. The returning
party and the other invitees take on a great feast, usually called Jante-Bakhro, roughly symbolizing the
feast of goat-meat, an important delicacy served. All of the events and rituals of the wedding are
complemented by singing, dancing and fun related activities, even by the marrying couples. In many
cultures, the newly-weds, along with the grooms immediate family members, return to the brides
family for a day after a couple of weeks (Dulhan Farkauney) to express gratitude for the new established
relationship.
I would like to reiterate again that wedding customs may vary with different cultural groups, but the
customs I have mentioned above, I believe are the typical ones.