Indian Culture: Traditions Of Weddings

India is one of the largest countries in the world with 1.35 billion people belong to it. Since I was young, I was watching a lot of Indian movies and I was amazed by their wedding ceremonies. I could see a lot of dancing, singing, and many other different traditions that they must do in such a ceremony. For me, their celebrations and actions in that social event were kind of weird because it is totally different from my country. I have been always trying to search more and learn about the Indian culture and how their interpersonal communication will be reflected in their social event like weddings. That is why, in this research paper, I will explain in details some interpersonal communication characteristics that relate to Indian culture, in general, and Indian weddings in specific.

Before going into details about the topic, I need to cliffy the concept of interpersonal communication. According to communication theory website, interpersonal communication means is a kind of communication which people can share their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ideas; it is face-to-face communication (Communication Theory, n.d.). This process of communication can happen through verbal and non-verbal messages such as voice tone, gestures or body language. India is like most of the countries; it has a rich history, India has many nonverbal traits that it can call its own. It also has unique verbal messages that will make it so hard for a non-native person to fully understand what is going on. All of these aspects plus the Indian cultural taxonomies play great rule on forming and shaping most of the social event such as a wedding.

To start with, the spiritual world is a huge factor that direct people and them how to interact and communicate. I mean religion by a spiritual world. In India, the most two common religions are Hindu and Islam. According to the official government website in India, “censusindia” Hindus are around 80.5%, Muslims are 13.4%, and Christians are 2.3% of the population (censusindia, n.d.) Since Hindu is the most popular and common religion in India, I will show how Hindu religion affects the interpersonal commination in weddings. “Bride” website states that the engagement is the first agreement between the families, and that’s when they set the wedding date. ‘The wedding rituals themselves begin 15 days before the wedding, with Barni Bandhwana,” say our catering managers. “That’s where a piece of thread, called Mauli, is tied to the hands of both the groom and his parents, to humbly request a safe wedding day from the gods” (Bride, n.d.) ”Brides” website asserts that in order to determine the date of in Hindu, the pride and the groom determine the date of the wedding in starts. Before the wedding, muhurta, an auspicious time, is determined for the event. By using the pride’s and the groom’s birthdates, they calculate the position of planets to reflect the celestial union of the couple. Furthermore, there is a very vital ritual in North Indian Hindu weddings. It only happens if the families are Hindu. That ritual is known as “saptapadi.“ During the saptapadi, the bride and groom have their garments tied together. In North India, the couple makes seven circles around a fire, each round signifying a specific blessing they request of the gods. The main reason behind the “saptapadi” is proofing the friendship and love between the couple since they are tied together as they circle a fire. Moreover, they begin the wedding by paring to Ganesha asking him for a better life without any obstacles. Ganesha is one of the most vital gods in Hindu, and it a human body status with an elephant head. In the name of their god Lakshmi, the groom places a black gold nickels on the pride asking his god of wealth, Lakshmi, to bless his wife forever throughout their mirage.

Mandap is also one of the most important events that must happen in Hindu weddings. It is basically a covered structure with four pillars. It is usually made of bamboo. It is usually decorated with flowers, fabric, and crystal with red and silver colors. This event has a great meaning behind it. The four pillars represent the parents of the couple. It shows how they suffer to raise and take care of their children. The parents come under the mandap and bless the bride and groom. On the other hand, there are a lot of differences between Indian Hindu weddings and Indian Islamic weddings. For example, in Islam, they believe in one god, Allah, so, they won’t have Ganesha or Lakshmi ceremonies. The men and women also are separated at the wedding. Moreover, Nikah is the person who manages the wedding ceremony. He asks the groom to say “‘Qubool Hain?’ (Do you give your consent) three times in a row. The bride has to reply by saying “Qubool Hain” in assertive and affirmative tone all three times.” (Cultural India, n.d.) As we see, religion is a big factor for the interpersonal communication in weddings.

Physical appearance is one the most important nonverbal messages that can affect the interpersonal communication. For example, if you are going for an interview, it will be expected that you will be wearing formal and look nice. However, if you didn’t do that, the first impression for the interviewer will be negative and probably will think that you don’t care or careless. It is the same thing in wedding traditions in India. There are some basic things that the groom and pride should do to show to everybody that they are happy, respect, and love each other. For example, the Tilak ceremony. It is a ceremony which Kumkum, a red turmeric powder is put on the groom’s head. This is usually done by a male member of the bride’s family. After that, they usually give gifts to the groom as a sign of appreciation and celebration. Moreover, lehenga is “traditional Indian attire worn for wedding celebrations” (Today’s Bride, n.d.)

Most of the western wedding ceremonies, brides tend to wear white dresses, and groom tend to wear a black suit. However, in Indian culture, brides always avoid wearing white dresses or white in general. They usually tend to represent their region of origin by putting on colorful clothes. In their culture, red color represents pleasure and happiness for the married couple. The most popular thing in the pride’s dress is the headscarf and the huge amount of jewelry she puts on. Likewise, Henna is very vital for weddings, and it is also well known in the middle west. Henna is a very important custom in Indian culture for a bride’s wedding day. A day before the wedding day, brides tend to put henna on their hand or feet. Henn is naturally a brown ink that you can use and apply to your skin to draw symbols and beautiful drawings and it is a sign of joy, beauty, and happiness. You can control the color of henna by changing the period you leave it on your skin until it peels off. “It is said that the darker the stain, the stronger the bond will be between the bride and her groom, as well as the bride and her mother-in-law” (Today’s Bride, n.d.) Sometimes, the brides write their groom’s name and hide it somewhere between their drawing, and it is the groom’s job to find their names.

On the other side, Sherwani is a very popular costume for the groom in the Indian culture. Sherwani is a long jacket, and grooms usually wear ‘Churidar’ for a nice and unique outfit. By the way, trousers are known as ‘Churidar.’ They also tend to put leather loafers on which they got removed before entering the mandap. The groom also usually wear a turban with brooch called Kalgi which represents respect. Furthermore, the most popular color code for all of that is either white or gold. Furthermore, there are something that you need to avoid making sure that you show respect to the couple. You should respect the Indians traditions if you are you going to attend one of their weddings. For example, in funerals, guests most of the times wear white and black to show their respect at this type of social event. So, we need to avoid wearing colors like black and white. I also mentioned earlier that the bride tends to wear a shade of red, so it is preferable to avoid wearing this color to show a respect to the bride and make her unique at this day. (Today’s Bride, n.d.) In some religions like Islam, it not good to wear clothes that uncover your body or show your shoulders. As we know, most Muslims wear Hijab, so, in order to show respect to such a wedding, we may wear clothes that cover our bodies as much as we can. As we notice, there is some basic tradition that the groom and pride have to do, and they also have to wear the specific type of clothes with specific color at this day to show that they do care about each other and respect their quests. Intercultural miscommunication may happen if we don’t follow these guidelines.

Time Orientation is one of the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Author stream website asserts that the Indian people are not very punctual. “Punctuality is limited to school and the army. Indians follow “Indian Standard Time”, no matter what part of the world they are in” (Author stream, n.d.) Since social event like weddings are not related to the army or school, Indians don’t care a lot about the time in such an event. That is a way most of the times the wedding ceremonies don’t start on time, and it is something that the Indians got used to it. Indians also are known as they live for today. It is a waste of time to wait for tomorrow (Author Stream, n.d.) Another aspect of Hofstede’s cultural dimension is collectivism. From my perspective, Indian culture is collectivism or at least that is what is implied from their wedding ceremonies. Mehendi is the place where the bride, her friend, and her family member meet to apply henna, and they usually do that before the wedding day. For the couple in North India, guests come together in a less formal setting for a talent show of sorts. All of their friends and family members gather together to dance, perform, sing, and enjoy their night. The bride’s family hosts this party and it is the time to introduce all members of families. There also an event called Garba Raas which takes place in the state of Gujarat, where the couples, family and friends are all joined together to celebrate that event. The night before that event, Guests gather to eat and dance with the couple. “Women traditionally dance in a circle during the first portion of the night, or Garba” (Manhattan Bride, n.d.)

As we notice, all of these events in different regions in the country gather many people together. Those people love and do care about each other. They also share the same feelings at these nights. A person doesn’t only care about him/herself and the close family member, but also about quests and all of the relatives. To sum up, weddings in India is a very big social event that reflects the Indian interpersonal communication. That can happen through many aspects such as religion, physical appearance, time orientation, or collectivism.

References and citation:

1. Attire for a Traditional Indian Wedding – Today’s Bride. (2017, July 20). Retrieved from https://todaysbride.com/blog/bridal-attire-accessories/2017/07/27/bridal-attire-traditional-indian-wedding/
2. Adapting Interpersonal Communication to the Culture of India. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jennifermcintyre-1791485-adapting-interpersonal-communication-culture-india/
3. Mackey, J., & Bose, S. (2018, April 20). 12 Hindu Wedding Ceremony Rituals and Traditions, Explained. Retrieved from https://www.brides.com/story/hindu-wedding-ceremony Muslim Wedding. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.culturalindia.net/weddings/regional-weddings/muslim-wedding.html
4. Indian Wedding Traditions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.manha