A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicities, races, religions, denominations, countries, social classes, and sexual orientations. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vows by a couple, presentation of a gift, and a public proclamation of marriage by an authority figure or celebrant. Special wedding garments are often worn, and the ceremony is sometimes followed by a wedding reception. Music, poetry, prayers, or readings from religious texts or literature are also commonly incorporated into the ceremony, as well as superstitious customs.
A Hindu wedding, also known as Vivaha, Marathi: Lagna (लग्न), Bengali: Bibaho (বিবাহ), Kalyanam, Kannada script: ಮದುವೆ (Maduve), Tamil: திருமணம் (Tirumanam), or Pelli, is the traditional wedding ceremony for Hindus. The wedding ceremonies are very colourful, and celebrations may extend for several days and usually a large number of people attend the wedding functions. The bride's and groom's home—entrance, doors, wall, floor, roof—are sometimes decorated with colors, flowers, and other decorations.
A rushnyk or rushnik is a decorative and ritual cloth. Made of linen or cotton it usually represents woven or embroidered designs, symbols and cryptograms of the ancient world. They have been used in sacred East Slavic rituals, religious services and ceremonial events such as weddings and funerals. Each region has its own designs and patterns with hidden meaning, passed down from generation to generation and studied by ethnographers.
A Jewish wedding is a wedding ceremony that follows Jewish laws and traditions. While wedding ceremonies vary, common features of a Jewish wedding include a ketubah that is signed by two witnesses, a chuppah or huppah, a ring owned by the groom that is given to the bride under the canopy, and the breaking of a glass.
A Bengali Muslim wedding is a Bengali wedding in accordance to Muslim faith. It includes rituals and ceremonies that may span up to three days maximum. In most cases, it starts with the Dekha Dekhi. Then, nikah which is done by a Qazi with a fixed denmohor and it ends with the Bou Bhat ceremony that is popular as the wedding reception arranged by the groom's family. It's the dominant tradition of wedding seen in Bangladesh.
Iranian wedding, also known as Persian wedding, consists of traditions rooted in Zoroastrianism, the primary religion of pre-Islamic Iran. Though the concepts and theories of marriage have been changed by Islamic traditions, the ceremonies have remained more or less the same as they were originally in pre-Islamic Iran. Although modern-day Iran is a multi-ethnic country, Iranian wedding traditions are embraced by the majority of ethnic groups in Iran.
Marriage in Pakistan pertains to wedding traditions established and adhered by Pakistani men and women. Despite their local and regional variations, marriages in Pakistan generally follow Islamic marital jurisprudence. Marriages are not only seen as a union between a husband and a wife, but also an alliance between their respective families. These traditions extend to other countries around in the world where Overseas Pakistani communities exist.
Punjabi wedding traditions are a strong reflection of Punjabi culture with ritual, song, dance, food, and dress that have evolved over centuries.
A Zoroastrian wedding is a religious ceremony in Zoroastrianism in which two individuals, a man and a woman, are united. In Zoroastrianism, marriage within the community is encouraged, and is greatly favored in religious texts. The following information will detail ceremony procedures and traditional processes for a Zoroastrian wedding.
Russian weddings held great importance in their culture and tradition, evolving differently according the region, but maintaining common points. They can last between two days and one week usually involving activities like dancing, singing, toasting, and banqueting. The best man and bridesmaid are called "Witnesses" or "Свидетели" in Russian. The ceremony and the ring exchange take place on the first day of the wedding. Russian weddings ceremonies have undertaken a certain amount of Western traditions, including incorporating maids of honour into the wedding party.
Ukrainian wreath, or Vinok, is a type of wreath which, in traditional Ukrainian culture, is worn by girls and young unmarried women. The wreath may be part of a tradition dating back to the old East Slavic customs that predate the Christianization of Rus. The flower wreath remains a part of the Ukrainian national attire, and is worn on festive occasions and on holy days, and since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution increasingly in daily life as part of a wider cultural revival.
The korovai, karavai, or kravai is a traditional Bulgarian, Ukrainian, and Russian bread, most often served at weddings, where it has great symbolic meaning. It has remained part of the wedding tradition in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, as well as in the Russian and Ukrainian diasporas. Its use in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine dates back to hospitality and holiday customs in ancient Rus. A similar bread is made in parts of eastern Poland. A round korovai is a common element of the bread-and-salt ceremony of welcome.
The Telugu Hindu wedding ceremony is the traditional wedding ceremony of the Telugu people in India. In the 19th century, the ceremony could last up to sixteen days. In modern times, it can last two or more days, depending on the family's financial and social status. The pelli or wedding is considered the strongest of social bonds, and is said to spiritually merge two souls opening the doors to gruhastaashramam. There is a Telugu saying that "Marriage is supposed to be a family union and not an individual formality." However, with changing mindset of the younger generation and due to globalization, marriage these days is being mainly focused solely on the union of the young couple only.
Bahaghara is a wedding ceremony performed by Odia Hindu people in the Indian state of Odisha. There are subtle differences in the rites observed by different castes. In Odia marriage rituals, the mother of the bridegroom does not take part in the ceremony. The Utkala Brahmins have their weddings only in the daytime, preferably at midday or in the morning, while the other caste weddings are done during the evening or night. There is the custom of sending betel nuts to family friends for inviting them to the marriage. The first invitation is sent to the family deity as a respect to the lord. Marriages in Odisha are mostly fixed and arranged by the parents. Marriages for serving or capturing is not common.
Traditional Hajong marriage is a ceremonial ritual that involves a marriage established by pre-arrangement between families. Within Hajong culture, romantic love and widow re-marriage were allowed, and monogamy was the norm for the Hajong people.
The Four Ceremonial Occasions. The four rites of passage celebrated in this tradition are the coming of age, marriage, death, or the funeral rites, and rites venerating the ancestors. The word Gwanhonsangje an acronym, made of the first letter of each word.
National symbols are the sacred attributes for Ukrainian people. In Ukrainian graphics there exist a number of symbols and images from national songs, legends. Such symbols and imagery are used in national customs and rituals. They are reproduced in embroidery on national costumes, ritual cloth—rushnyks, painted on crockery, in forged products, in carving, in bas-relief house decoration, in hearth painting, pottery, engraving and also in Ukrainian traditional Easter eggs—pysanky.
Traditional Ukrainian wedding – is a wedding in Ukrainian folk everyday life – a complex mixture of rites of different days, in which elements of the ancestral exogamic era, Greek-Byzantine religious-mystical influences and newer Ukrainian ones are distinguished.
Sindhi traditions and rituals refers to the traditions and rituals practiced by the Sindhis, the cultural group native to Sindh, Pakistan. have many traditions and rituals starting from the birth of a child to the death of a person. These traditions and rituals differ from region to region and also from one religion to another.
