Si­mone Sant-Ghu­ran

It starts as a low, far-off rum­ble, and as your ears perk up you be­gin to hear it clear­ly–the tas­sa drums, in­ter­mit­tent­ly rolling and rhyth­mi­cal­ly pul­sat­ing. It sig­nals to all that the "Fri­day night" or "matikhor night" of a Hin­du wed­ding has start­ed. It's on­ly just the be­gin­ning of a three-day cel­e­bra­tion, rich in cer­e­mo­ny and shroud­ed in tra­di­tion.The "matikhor pro­ces­sion" is in­tox­i­cat­ing, not on­ly to hear but to watch...as hap­py, laugh­ing women walk down the street, ac­com­pa­ny­ing a young girl (usu­al­ly the bride's or groom's youngest sis­ter) car­ry­ing a tray of In­di­an sweets on her head. It is in­deed an en­tourage that draws cu­ri­ous on­look­ers who perch over their bal­conies–all wish­ing they could be part of the spec­ta­cle and ca­ma­raderie.

The women move in the di­rec­tion from the "wed­ding house," in search of a riv­er, stand pipe or a Hin­du neigh­bour's yard pipe. There, mar­ried women per­form a rit­u­al ask­ing the run­ning wa­ter to wash away any evil that may be sur­round­ing the bride. This is ac­com­pa­nied with more tas­sa drum­ming, singing of tra­di­tion­al Hin­du wed­ding songs and danc­ing.Af­ter this, the bride re­turns to her home where she sits un­der a mar­row (a dec­o­rat­ed canopy) by a be­di (an area dec­o­rat­ed with mo­sa­ic-like pat­terns of coloured rice and a young ba­nana plant) and pre­pares for the "har­di cer­e­mo­ny."She is then smeared with a paste of grat­ed turmer­ic root and oil. This is to cleanse her of im­pu­ri­ties and make her skin glow for the cer­e­mo­ny. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, she must stay in­doors and must not show­er un­til the wed­ding. The har­di cer­e­mo­ny al­so takes place at the groom's house.

Mod­ern-day Hin­du brides al­so host "mehen­di par­ties" on the Fri­day night, where women in the bridal par­ty get their hands and palms paint­ed with de­signs of red-or­ange hen­na paste.To­day, some Hin­du wed­dings may al­so in­cor­po­rate even more as­pects of West­ern cul­ture; for in­stance, on­ly a one-day Sun­day wed­ding or brides opt­ing to wear white, West­ern-styled wed­ding dress­es and car­ry bridal bou­quets. Oth­er West­ern in­flu­ences man­i­fest in the bride's out­fit colours; which some­times move away from the tra­di­tion­al yel­low and red, to­wards or­ange, peach, bur­gundy, fuch­sia, gold, ivory or white.

In Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Sat­ur­day night of a Hin­du wed­ding is known as the "Cook­ing night." This is when the bride and groom pre­pare to bid farewell to their sin­gle life.To cel­e­brate, women and men gath­er to cook din­ner for that night and pre­pare for the fol­low­ing day. Amidst more danc­ing and fes­tiv­i­ty, young and old women alike, chat with each oth­er as they peel and chop pota­toes, chataigne, caraille and pump­kin at light­ning speeds, in­to large enam­el basins. Else­where, mam­moth paratha ro­tis are skil­ful­ly turned on­to enor­mous tawahs (round iron grid­dles).

On this night, apart from food prepa­ra­tion, one of the main rit­u­als is the "parch­ing of the lawa." Lawa (rice pad­dy), is heat­ed on a flame by a fe­male rel­a­tive, usu­al­ly a sis­ter of the fa­ther of the bride. The "cook­ing night" al­so takes place at the groom's house.

Next week, I'll fea­ture part 2 of the Hin­du wed­ding.

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