Chandigarh - Wedding festivities, Sunday morning

The wedding festivities continued on Sunday morning. The previous night's event ended around midnight, and Sunday's events started about 10am. The ceremonies on Sunday morning started out similarly to Saturday. People were sitting on mats on the floor and playing a drum and singing. I believe this is done to kill time while waiting for people. Since India runs on a vague sense of time, things usually start late.

There was Hindu priest who chanted, passed around water, and told people to say stuff. What that was, I have no idea. We also threw marigold petals on the bride and groom separately. N had her wedding bangles put on, I believe with her eyes closed, and they were then covered up because the bride is not supposed to see them until certain point. There are also other things put on her wrists with beads. At some point she shook these and broke the beads over the heads of the single women there. I have no idea what any of that meant.

The priest is sitting to the left. You can see the bowl of water and marigold petals on the mat.

You can see N's bangles are covered and A's sister is placing dangly things on her wrists with the beads.

After the first ceremony, we went to find water for the bride and groom to bathe in. Again there was use of a drum and probably some singing, but I'm not sure. We crossed the street and wandered around a neighborhood looking for a water source. It appears that the water at the temple may have been out, but a man pointed the group to a tank where they filled up the water jugs below. Two women, who were tied to their husbands, carried the water on their heads. We were also fed some sort of sweet. After that, the parents of the bride and groom had to haggle with them to purchase the water for the bride and groom to bathe in.

Women with the water jugs and someone being fed a sweet.

After the water ceremony we all headed to the hotel to get ready for the main event.