A Royal Wedding

I have only been two weeks into my first missionary assignment here in Fiji and I was able to witness my first Indian wedding. Fiji is multicultural society – the population is composed of the native Fijians, Indo-Fijians, Chinese and others. Most of the Indo-Fijians are descendants of the “girmitiyas” indentured laborers from India who came to Fiji to work in the sugar fields of Fiji more than a hundred years ago.  Within the Indian population here in Fiji, one can also find diversity in ethnicity and religion. They came from different parts of India. There are three major religions practiced by the Indo-Fijians namely Islam, Hinduism and Christianity. Here in Fiji, Christianity is further divided into many other churches like the Methodist, Catholic and Pentecostal groupings.

It is not common to find inter marriages between the major ethnic groups. Last April 30, 2011 I got the privilege to witness the celebration of the wedding of an Indian couple – the bride is Catholic while the groom was a Hindu. The entire ceremony lasted for about two hours and it was filled with a lot of rituals, symbols, colors and scents. I realized through the process of inculturation, the wedding ceremony has been enriched and enlivened. The ceremony happened under a brightly – decorated tent called a “mandap” in Hindi on a stage.

Mandap, brightly decorated tent for religious celebrations.

We arrived early before everyone started coming into the venue of the wedding, which was the rented hall of an Indian college. The ceremony began which the sounds of the drums and cymbals announcing the arrival of the groom. The groom was welcomed and given some food and drinks; then he was seated. The bride came in and the priest welcomed the couple. Both the bride and the groom looked very royal and beautiful. The priest then lit the diya, which is a camphor lamp used in religious ceremonies together with the parents of the bride and groom. Everyone settled down and the opening prayer was said followed by the reading of the Gospel and psalms. A bhajan (religious hymn) was sung before the reading of the Gospel.

Lighting of the diya.

It was great to be able to witness everything up close since I was also busy taking pictures while the entire ceremony was going on. The actual wedding rites began with the declaration of the couple’s intention and freedom to marry followed by the kanyadaan, where the bride was culturally handed over by her parents into the hand of the groom. It is a beautiful ritual that shows the value the Indian culture place on women. After this ritual, the couple encircled the tent housing the altar for seven times. The priest also placed incense in front of the Cross and questioned the couple on a different aspect of married life each time they completed a circle. This ritual is called the bhavar.

Kanyadaan

At the end of the bhavar, the couple exchanged marriage vows holding each other’s right hand (The left hand is considered unclean in Indian culture). The priest blessed the rings and the couple placed the ring on each other’s finger. The groom tied the tali, a yellow string, around the bride’s neck. Interestingly, the groom’s sister then placed a toe ring on the bride’s right foot, which is a South Indian practice.

Groom tying the tali around the bride's neck

Then the bride led the exchange of mala, which is a garland of flowers, three times. The exchange signifies that whatever one owns, the other also owns.  The couple then exchanged seating places.  As they were seated, the relatives tied strings of gold metal on the foreheads of the couple. After everyone had their chance, the groom took red dye with his finger and marked the spot on the bride’s forehead just between her eyebrows, which is called the tika. The tika is a mark, which signifies to others that the woman is married. Indians, especially from the Indian South, culturally practice this.

Groom puts a tika on the bride's forehead.

The priest officially blessed the newly married couple. Finally, relatives and close friends were then invited to approach the married couple and shower them with flower petals mixed with rice grains to bless them. This ritual is called the pushpavrishti.  A feast of curry and roti followed which I was looking forward to. All kinds of curry was served but without meat to respect the many Hindus who don’t eat meat, especially during religious functions. I loved the sweets and the paisam, which was made of milk and peanuts.  This is one common thing with Indians and Filipinos, we love food!

Fr. Pat Colgan, SSC officiated the wedding assisted by Master David Krishna who is also my Hindi guru-jii (“respected teacher”). Fr. Pat and the couple went through a lot of preparation before the wedding. Only a few couples request for this kind of wedding because of the preparations and the complexity of the rituals. There were many things I found quite different from my experience of weddings in the Philippines. The rituals that provided so much symbolism and meaning were new for me.  I think it is important to have all these rituals and symbolism kept because they provide the experiential element of the ceremony, which is important in our understanding of the sacraments. Coming from the Philippines, I’m sad that we have lost so much of our rituals and symbolisms. We have given in to the commercialism and Westernization of our faith and culture.  I admire the couple for their courage to remain faithful to their tradition and thank them for their invitation. It was truly a royal Indian wedding. 

Choir singing beautiful bhajans. Mostly members of the Nandera mandali.

Fr. Pat Colgan, SSC watches over as the groom signs the marriage contract.

Written by Kurt Zion Pala, a FMA student from the Philippines currently assigned to Fiji for two years of pastoral and missionary experience.