Tamil wedding is one of the most colorful and vibrant weddings. There customs and traditions are really vibrant and full of life. The wedding rituals last up to 3-5 days with a lot of traditions and pre-post wedding rituals. The best part of their wedding is that they are very creative about their dressing for wedding. The ladies are dressed in colorful silk sarees with flowers and gold jewelry, where as you can see males in dhoti and kurta. Here, we are sharing some important rituals of Tamil Brahmin wedding. The wedding rituals start with “Pandha Kall Muhurtham” and the rituals ends with “Gravapravesham”. Let’s take a close look at the wedding rituals of Tamil Brahmin wedding.
Pandh Kaal Muhurtham: This is the very first ritual of Tamilian wedding. All the elderly members of the family participate in rituals. They place a tall wooden stick outside the house and raise the banana trees covered with decorations to symbolically announce that there is a marriage happening in the house. This is one of the oldest rituals of Tamilian wedding and being followed by almost all the Tamil families. The elder people of the family bless the bride and groom of the house and seek the blessings from the God for hassle free wedding.
Vratham: Vratham is the fast that happens generally a day before the wedding. In this rituals, both the bride and groom’s families fast for prosperity of their children and their new married life. On this day, a clay pot filled with nine varieties of grains is kept aside. The married women of the family pour water in the pot and allow the grains to sprout for the day. This is a symbolic rituals, where the pot is considered as houses, grains as bride and groom and the sprouts indicates the prosperity in the family. The family members sing traditional folk songs during various rituals and rejoice. After a day or two the pot is immersed into the pond, where fishes can eat the grains.
Jaanavasam: Jaanavasam is nothing but a small ceremony, which is conducted just before the reception. The Tamil bride and groom came in a gorgeously decorated car and they get down outside the marriage hall. Nowadays, to make it more glorious and fancy, the Tamil groom came on a horse of on a chariot. This ritual is performed to welcome the groom and perform aarthi. A display of fireworks is a part of the procession.
Nicchiyadhartham: It is a small pre-wedding important function where the Tamil bride offers prayers to the God in the presence of a priest. In this ritual, the groom’s family gifts the bride with everything she requires such as sarees, flowers, makeup essentials, etc. Some families like to showcase most of the items in the gift collection. It is a kind of welcoming gesture from the groom’s house to the bride.
Receiving the groom: However, the family of the bride has already welcomed the groom on previous day itself, but this is another round of welcoming that will happened on the day of the wedding. The bride’s family welcomes groom’s family with a wide variety of plates like nuts, fruits, flowers, sweets and clothes. The bride’s brother applies the Tilak on the groom’s forehead similar to the North-Indian wedding Tilak ceremony.
Kashi Yatra: On the wedding day morning, the bride and the groom takes a holi bath and get ready for the day. The tradition says that the groom has to pretend like he is leaving to Kashi to become sanyasi. But, the bride’s father and family holds his hand and tries to convince him not to go for sanyas and do the marriage. After this, the groom heads to the marriage hall where the bride’s family welcomes him.
Oonjal: In this tradition, the bride and the groom are asked to sit on a wooden plank swing, where ladies of the house sing traditional folk songs and celebrated the holiness of the marriage. This is where the bride and groom are offered a banana dipped in the milk. The tradition is basically to ease their tension of marriage and make them comfortable.
Kanyadan: In this ritual, both bride and groom go into the mandap together to start the wedding. The father of the bride washes the feet of the groom. The mother of the bride applies kajal in the groom’s eye as ritual. During the wedding muhurtham, the hand of the bride is held by the father and given to the groom. After the ritual, the bride is handed over a nine year saree as gift from groom’s family. She is supposed to change into the nine yard-Madisaaru. Once she is back in that new saree, bride and groom holds the hand. The groom ties the knot three times while the bride folds her hand.
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