The night before the wedding

Trip Start Feb 07, 2007
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Trip End Mar 13, 2007


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Flag of India  ,
Sunday, February 25, 2007

I was invited to a relative's wedding ceremony and it's certainly a different occasion compared to the traditional english weddings that I have experienced back at home.  It is the night before the actual wedding so there was a huge pre-party today.

The celebrations revolve around a tradition known as the 'Juggar'.  This is where everyone connected to the bride carry a candle and walks through village (when they say candle, they actually mean 'great big huge pot with a flame in the middle!).  This wouldn't work back in England as waking ppl up, entering their gardens and playing loud music at night would go down as a criminal offence;).  

My cousins Shira and G'Nek dressed up in traditional Indian attire for this one which had me laughing at first 01 - Shira
01 - Shira
 .  It took a lot aof bottle if you ask me and I suppose thats why they were hitting the shots before they got changed lol. 

The whole thing lasts several hours as everyone has to carry the huge candles at some point... hence me and Suv took a couple of beers with us to keep us going! As this is my first time in India I wanted to try and blend in as much as I could, taking part in as many cultural things as possible.  So eventually, me and Suv took the huge candles and went round part of the village.  They are VERY heavy and have to be carried on one's head (which is bloody dangerous if you ask me?!).  My sisters Rup and Sharan both carried these god foresaken candles aswell... tho smartly for a short amount of time! 

Thank god for the beer cause me and Suv both reckon we carried those things twice as long as anyone else lol.  It was a great experience, I've never witnessed anything like this before.  I look forward to the wedding tomorrow..
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