Marriage is regarded as the most important social
event in Indian culture. The concept of marriage can be traced back to
Vedic times. Mostly Hindu marriage ceremonies are elaborate one and they
lasts for days or even weeks. Although the main wedding ceremony is a
one-day affair but there are different ceremonies that are held on
separate days preceding the main wedding ceremony. According to Hindu
religion out of sixteen ceremonies in a person's lifetime marriage is
considered to be the thirteenth one. In our Indian society we mostly
have arranged marriages where the parents of both the girl and boy
decides about the wedding. They only decide whom to marry. Once they
choose the girl and boy they were allowed to meet and see other. Once
they like each other the date of the engagement and marriage is decided.
There are various pre wedding functions and rituals out of which
engagement ceremony is the most important since it marks the beginning
of the wedding ceremony. Months before the wedding an engagement
ceremony is conducted. It is known by different names in different
regions of the country. Like it is known as Misri, ring ceremony,
aashirwad, and mangni.
On the day of the engagement the family members, friends and relatives
of both the groom and bride's meets. They meet to bless the couple and
wish them a happily married life. The would-be bride and groom are given
gifts of jewelry and clothes by their new family. The engagement or the
ring ceremony is held to exchange the gold wedding rings. The couple
after exchanging their ring they offer sweets welcome each other with
garlands. Than sweets and good wishes are exchanged between the two
families. Than all the guests gathers for the dinner party where the
family and friends have dinner and enjoy. Trays of gifts are offered to
both the families. In Gujarati customs the bride's family gifts the
groom's family 'matli', which consists of snacks and Indian sweets.
Engagement is an important wedding celebration and it holds a lot of
significance in the Indian wedding traditions.
