subject: Meaning of Exchange of Garlands in a Hindu Wedding [print this page] It has been the custom among the Hindus from time immemorial that the bridegroom and the bride should be carried on the shoulders of their respective maternal uncles to exchange of garlands of flowers on their necks, prior to the commencement of the regular marriage ceremony after the betrothal and on the three or four succeeding days. The bride and the bridegroom each wear two garlands on their necks.
The respective uncles carrying them on their shoulders, bring them close face to face and the husband takes off from his neck one garland and garlands his betrothed with it. The bride then takes a garland from her neck and garlands her betrothed husband. This process is repeated thrice. The custom of wedding garlands varies slightly with certain communities of the Hindus.
A community of Hindu people observes this custom with the bride and the bridegroom sitting or standing in front of each other. The custom of maternal uncle carrying the bride and the bridegroom on their shoulders to exchange their garlands is perhaps confined to the Brahmins and the Komutis for the reason that the marriage of their girls takes place when they are very young, or, in other words, when they are about nine or ten years old. In other castes this practice is not followed for the obvious reason that the brides are generally girls who have attained puberty and consequently, the custom is not desirable to be followed.
According to the Hindu marriage customs, the Hindu youth is supposed to marry not with a view to satisfy his carnal appetite, but with the definite aim of performing religious rites in company with his wife for the spiritual evolution of both. In fact, a wife is said to be a saha dharmacharini which means the lady who performs the duty enjoined in company with her husband.
The observance of the religious rites develops spirituality in the observers, both men and women. Like the sacred thread worn by the Brahmins, these decorative garlands symbolize spirituality. A husband by putting one of his two garlands round the neck of his would be wife, bestows on her a half of his spiritual force, and she repeating the process in her turn shares hers with him. To conclude, this is the main end and aim to attain which all the subsequent rites are observed to be continued thereafter day after day till perfection in evolution is attained in both taking many births even if need be as husband and wife.
Meaning of Exchange of Garlands in a Hindu Wedding
By: Sujoy
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