Texas

I've been in Texas for the last 2 days attending a Indian wedding. After this, the normal Christian church wedding can't compare. This has been so beautiful and elaborate. Everyone is wearing different vibrant color saris and the venue is decorated with flowers, cloth and gold statues of deities. On the first night, they had the tumeric ceremony. It starts with a prayer, then the soon to be married couple get dotted with tumeric paste on their feet, hands and head. Tumeric is supposed to be good for your skin but it also makes it yellow. Then the next night was the Sangeet (sp?) which was basically a party. There were dances and speeches in honor of the bride and groom to be. This morning we attended the wedding ceremony. The groom comes in on a horse while everyone dances in front of him. This is to symbolize the journey the groom makes to meet his bride. Traditionally, this would be the first time they meet. The bride wore a gorgeous red sari with gold trimming. The venue was adorned with flowers and scarves and gold statues. The ceremony was about an hour long. The parents sat under an awning with the Hindu priest and bride and groom. They performed various tasks such as offering rose petals to
Ganesh (with the elephant head) . Clarified butter and rice were fed into a small fire. The couple also walked around the stage area 7 times and kicked 7 small piles of rice. I don`t remember what this stands for. I will have to look this up. They weren't allowed to kiss dues to religious customs so the priest had the couple feed each other by bringing their arm around the shoulders. Tonight I think the reception will be similar to what we normally witness in America.