Asia Adventure 2012: Delhi and Vani and Ian’s Wedding

Well, it is Saturday March 17^th, St. Patrick’s day, and we are going to an Indian wedding ceremony this evening in Delhi, India. We could hear no less than 3 different events booked at our hotel; a wedding, a corporate event, and an unidentified event. Each event was competing to ensure their attendants could hear the festivities, so as time marched on, all 3 events increased the volume on their sound systems and we realized how important it is to celebrate just about anything here in India.

Let me digress a bit with the Coles Notes version of St. Patrick’s Day. First of all, St. Patrick wasn't even Irish. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to a wealthy family. At 16, Patrick was kidnapped to tend sheep as a slave in Ireland for seven years. He got a religious conversion there and became Christian. Despite escaping his slavery and returning back to Britain where he was reunited with his family, a voice told him to go back to Ireland. So he did and he was ordained as a priest, then spent the rest of his life trying to convert the Irish to Christianity. According to lore, Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was tough work because he was constantly beaten by thugs, harassed by the Irish royalty, and scolded by his British superiors. After he died on March 17, 461, Patrick was largely forgotten. But slowly, mythology grew around Patrick, and centuries later he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland. Until the 1970s, St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was a minor religious holiday where families would celebrate with a big meal. But in America, Irish charitable organizations celebrated St. Patrick's Day with banquets. Parades were held in cities with significant Irish populations like Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago and wearing the color green showed a commitment to Ireland. In Chicago, in 1962, they dyed a portion of the Chicago River green (this story paraphrased from National Geo). And I’m guessing that’s where the idea of dyeing the Guinness green comes from. It is estimated that the normal 5.5mil pints of Guinness consumed every day, increases to 13mil pints on St. Patrick’s Day. Have you had yours yet?

A wedding in India is very exciting and finally the time had come to leave for the grand event. We hired a taxi again through the hotel and he opted to wait for us until after the wedding was over. We arrived in good time, but were not the first ones to arrive like last night. We mulled around with Ian and his family/guests. Ian wore an awesome gold outfit with a crimson/purple turban and some traditional shoes. All of a sudden the elephant arrived. Yes, the elephant. Grooms don't usually enter the wedding garden on the back of an elephant but for a wedding on St Patrick's Day the Elephant seemed to make sense, so Ian fulfilled that duty perfectly along with the accompaniment of a young guest. Guests walk alongside the elephant while a band plays crazy music, much like Engineering's notorious Lady Godiva Marching Band. People hoot, holler, clap, cheer, and generally get the groom ready for his big leap into married life. Some place money in the elephant’s trunk and he flings it up to his master. I’m not sure what happens to the money, but it was fascinating to see the elephant perform his duties. That in itself was completely awesome!

Raju, our hotel driver, drove us to the wedding and we arrived at 6:15pm. Once the groom arrived and we all slowly entered the wedding garden, things unfolded in good old “Indian Time”. There were drinks and hors d’oeuvres to keep us occupied until Vani arrived. There was no grand entrance or anything. She just arrived and walked towards the stage to sit with Ian, but once guests noticed her and all her gorgeous attendants, everyone quickly ran for their cameras to capture her radiant smile and stunning wedding dress (fuchsia and gold theme covered with some awesomely sparkling bling) and amazing jewellery. I’ve seen a lot of brides before, but she was ultra-radiant. The wedding garden was decorated with miles of gold and purple valances, gold table cloths with beige cloth covered chairs with fuchsia bows, and the most colourful floral centerpieces (pink/purple orchids, yellow sunflowers, and little white flowers).

The happy couple sat on the stage surrounded by family members and other than people taking photos, I didn’t notice anything of a ceremonial nature happening. Then Vani and Ian walked over to a ceremonial tent where an Elder spoke at length with them and took them through some rituals which (from an ignorant but attentive observer) appeared to be using various herbs and medicines as mediums to solidify their union. At one point Vani’s Mom held her hands, palms upwards while holding herbs/medicines which seemed to be a garnering of her Mother’s support and possibly the joining of families. Then there was some cloth tied together by their attendants and looked like it signified “tying the knot”. A fire was lit and medicines thrown into the fire, then they walked around the tent area in a clockwise direction several times, before the female attendants left and the male attendants arrived.

All the while guests were eating, drinking, and socializing. I was told that there were 127 different dishes available, if you could imagine! Someone mentioned that the caterers also provided food to all the drivers lined up outside waiting for their fares. After Vani and Ian completed the ceremony in the tent, they came back to the stage, only this time Vani sat on the left hand side of Ian which may signify something. At any rate, it was completely fascinating, colourful, and charged with positive energy. A band was playing some excellent music and everyone was having a super-amazing time. The music had to wrap up at 11pm because they are not allowed to play longer than that due to a city by-law. That was too bad because it was an amazing wedding.