Backyard Wedding
Backyard weddings used to be designed for couples who just didn’t like big formal affairs. But as we start to reopen into phase 3 of the Covid saga, backyard weddings are becoming incredibly popular. Mainly because Covid restrictions are still changing on the daily and backyard weddings offer a certain level of security against last minute lockdowns. For what its worth, families seem to enjoy it. It’s finally an excuse to get to together. And cultural traditions are able take effect again.
Nepalese Hindu Ceremony
I’ve done plenty of Hindu Ceremonies at this point, but never experience a Nepalese Wedding Ceremony. In my head, it was supposed to be structurally similar, with a couple personal touches that fuses it to Buddhism. Like how Hindi is the national language of India but each territory might have a different dialect. Boy was I wrong. While Indian Hindu Ceremonies last about 2-3 hours, this Nepalese wedding went for 6-7 hours. Here are some key variations I noticed.
In India, this ceremony begins with the bride’s brothers washing the groom’s feet. The bride and groom are considered royalty on their wedding day, so this act is considered a huge honour. In Nepal, this act is take a few steps further. Both the bride and groom get their feet washed. But instead of just the brothers, its performed by the parents, and in this case every guest in attendance. So everyone has a chance to wash the couple’s feet. Some will simply wash. While others will bathe in the water themselves, or even drink it. After all, this water washed the feet of royalty.
Now this tradition, I almost prefer over the Indian version. During most of the ceremony, the bride sits on her right side of the groom. Once married, she swaps to the left. In the Indian tradition, they would just stand up and swap seats. In the Nepalese Wedding Ceremony, the groom physically picks up his bride and moves her to the new position of wife. The giggles that come from this moment is priceless.
Take a look through these photos. There are honestly so many cool elements in this ceremony. And while I also film the wedding video of this Nepalese Wedding Ceremony, a 7hr video would probably break my blog. So it’s just the wedding photos for now.
