The Painting Ceremony

Now the first ceremonies could begin! Toward late afternoon a group of women, without the bride, appeared at our hotel together with Prithi's husband Xavier. It was time for the "Haldi" ceremony with Carsten.

Karen and her family are Catholics, but still many of the Indian traditions are performed. Carsten had to let himself be painted with a type of yellow paste. Each person that was present put some on his face and various blessings were done.

I also had a spot painted on my forehead ("Bindiya"). It was all very interesting. Maybe, when Karen is here, she can explain the meanings behind it all. For that, we didn't have the time.

and the bride being painted at her home...

After this part of the ceremonies, Carsten was told he must remain in the hotel, he was not to leave the room under any circumstances! But, yes, he could take a shower and wash all the paint off! In the meantime I went to Karen's home with the group. Here the ceremonies continued, this time with the bride. The painting of the bride was a bit more thorough, including putting lots of paste in her hair! Sometimes she threw the paste back at whoever was putting it on her so at times it was almost like at mud fight there! As you may notice in some pictures, Karen's arms and also feet are covered with what looks like tattoos. Actually, it's designs done with Henna coloring. I got my left palm also painted ("mehendi"), noticeable in one of the pictures below. Karen lives in an 2-story apartment complex. On her floor are about 5 1 and 2 room apartments. But the whole floor was like one big family. Everyone joined in the celebrations. Sometimes the room was overflowing with people! Since the weather was very hot and humid it at times got very warm! But it was a lot of fun!

After the ceremony, I joined the others in the larger living room of one of the neighbors. Here they put on Indian pop music and we all started dancing. Of course, they insisted I join in. Their way to dance is more like belly dancing then what we're used to. It was lots of fun and I think they were all quite surprised, that I could dance right along! We had a great time! Later I was brought back to the hotel.