Ena & Rajat - a Hindu wedding

The first series should be the third blog entry, however I forgot that I could not re-order them after I had published the draft. So the 'beginning' is below. These are during the actual wedding ceremony.

Ishan officiates during a portion of the ceremony. He puts rice puffs into her hands and she puts the rice puffs into the groom's hands to offer to the Lord of the Fire, who dispels darkness thus leading to light and knowledge. [aka Holy Ghost]

They have completed the symbolic tying of the knot. He has a sash that joins the two together with a beautiful clip. They kept that union throughout the rest of the event.

Prior to this step - the giving of the bride. The prime wealth of the household is the daughter, who symbolizes wealth. Thus the bride's parents have transferred a great wealth into the care of the groom. The groom accepts the daughter as an equal life partner for which there is no greater gift.
Now the kindling of the sacred fire. This started as a small candle, then more incense wood was added and after each vow each put another stick on the fire. Soon we had a real blaze going -it must have been hot sitting an arm's length away. It also put a good deal of incense and smoke into the room. If the room had smoke alarms and not just heat sensors we would have been rained out.

By the exchange of Garlands they symbolize formal acceptance and respect. Another significant step -from the tradition of arranged marriage by this step they also say -my parents and family choose you and now I also choose you.
This ceremony had 20 steps, fortunately we had a detailed program. As one of the 20, it also included the 7 steps [you may remember this from the movie Gandhi], as they take 7 steps forward together with the groom leading. Each step symbolizes unity and principles of life and vows made by the couple.
As always the food and desserts were wonderful.
I had fun with my new camera. I asked Atul if it was okay to take pictures, or if there we times when I should refrain. His answer was take them all, Indians do not care. I also turned off my cell phone but that turned out to be unnecessary. This a colorful and festive celebration.