Marriage Ceremony attended in Coorg
Happen to attend my 'friends' wedding on 23rd Jan in Coorg. One of the Joyful, musical, funfilled marriage I have attended. Actually this is the 3rd marriage ceremony I have ever attended. First two being my 'Uncles' and 'Cousin sisters'. Even those were awesome.
The marriage attended in Coorg is memorable for many things. I had expected it to be different as the first two marriages I have seen are of Maharashtrian style. Dint thought it will be DISTINCT.
The ceremony was in Madikeri, beautiful place. We reached there early morning to attend the ceremony. Ceremony started around 10 AM and went on till 10 PM, still I dint get to know when did actual wedding rituals happened :) This is how it went.......
When groom and family came, Bride and family greeted them by performing a ritual called 'Baale Birud'. This is performed by cutting plantain stumps of the tree driven into the ground (no of stumps are always multiple of 3) which symbolizes ‘Bali’, elder ones from bride family cuts each stump in a single stroke and dances to the beat of the music.
Sometime later I saw both bride and groom sitting in a mandap and started accepting gifts & blessings from the guests. We waited for a long time to see if some (usual) ritual is performed but nothing happened. So we thought of having lunch, and to my amusement food served included meat.......of every type. I guess number of animals in Coorg gets decreased to great extent after each marriage :)
**Marriage ceremonies in Coorg are performed without Brahmin or puja and the rare weddings in Hindu community where Non-veg and liquor is served to the guests.
After having lunch we again joined the bride & groom; guests were still coming to wish the couple with gifts. It went for some more time, now couple started going to have lunch and suddenly brides family specially her cousin (Mothers brothers’ son) stopped grooms family. This is an interesting ritual in Coorg weddings wherein grooms family has to convince brides’ family so as to take bride with them. Grooms family took some half an hour to convince. It was fun watching both families fighting for the bride and both families enjoying that fight. Amazing people.
After that fun-filled fight we thought of roaming around the place and come back in the evening. We came back to the place around 5 PM. Bride was standing with two silver pots on her head, and people were dancing around. I thought its some type of 'Freestyle Dance' then I realized people are actually drunk and yes dance was also of particular kind. Liquor was served openly and freely to the guests. Dancing went on till 8:30. Almost everybody was dancing and enjoying the event. It was joyful seeing the dance. Hats off to the band which started around 9 in the morning and continued till 10 PM without a break.
**Marriage ceremonies in Coorg are accompanied with live band.
In all, Coorgy weddings are funfilled, joyful ceremonies to attend. Not so good for animals, next time I hear any person from Coorg getting married I see scared, horrified animals running here and there :)
The marriage attended in Coorg is memorable for many things. I had expected it to be different as the first two marriages I have seen are of Maharashtrian style. Dint thought it will be DISTINCT.
The ceremony was in Madikeri, beautiful place. We reached there early morning to attend the ceremony. Ceremony started around 10 AM and went on till 10 PM, still I dint get to know when did actual wedding rituals happened :) This is how it went.......
When groom and family came, Bride and family greeted them by performing a ritual called 'Baale Birud'. This is performed by cutting plantain stumps of the tree driven into the ground (no of stumps are always multiple of 3) which symbolizes ‘Bali’, elder ones from bride family cuts each stump in a single stroke and dances to the beat of the music.
Sometime later I saw both bride and groom sitting in a mandap and started accepting gifts & blessings from the guests. We waited for a long time to see if some (usual) ritual is performed but nothing happened. So we thought of having lunch, and to my amusement food served included meat.......of every type. I guess number of animals in Coorg gets decreased to great extent after each marriage :)
**Marriage ceremonies in Coorg are performed without Brahmin or puja and the rare weddings in Hindu community where Non-veg and liquor is served to the guests.
After having lunch we again joined the bride & groom; guests were still coming to wish the couple with gifts. It went for some more time, now couple started going to have lunch and suddenly brides family specially her cousin (Mothers brothers’ son) stopped grooms family. This is an interesting ritual in Coorg weddings wherein grooms family has to convince brides’ family so as to take bride with them. Grooms family took some half an hour to convince. It was fun watching both families fighting for the bride and both families enjoying that fight. Amazing people.
After that fun-filled fight we thought of roaming around the place and come back in the evening. We came back to the place around 5 PM. Bride was standing with two silver pots on her head, and people were dancing around. I thought its some type of 'Freestyle Dance' then I realized people are actually drunk and yes dance was also of particular kind. Liquor was served openly and freely to the guests. Dancing went on till 8:30. Almost everybody was dancing and enjoying the event. It was joyful seeing the dance. Hats off to the band which started around 9 in the morning and continued till 10 PM without a break.
**Marriage ceremonies in Coorg are accompanied with live band.
In all, Coorgy weddings are funfilled, joyful ceremonies to attend. Not so good for animals, next time I hear any person from Coorg getting married I see scared, horrified animals running here and there :)
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