Wednesday, 19 June 2019
A Hindu wedding isn’t just a one-day affair. In fact, Moh and Sharon’s wedding went on for five. Now, not the actual wedding but the events surrounding the wedding and each with its own significance. I’d been to Avi’s wedding back in February and that was an Indian Muslim wedding so I wasn’t sure how much similarity there would be. The answer is – a bit. They use a lot of the same words, anyway, but they do them a bit differently.
The M&S Wedding was spread over the five days as: Mendhi night, Maticoor night, the wedding, the reception, and the Kangan. So each blog post will be about one of these and then I’ll link one to the other.
We went to Moh’s house on Tuesday, the 18th June. Moh lives in the home that he grew up in, since he bought the house when his parents moved further out of Toronto. So the house is familiar. He’s done a bunch of work to smarten it up and it shows. Moh put us both to work immediately, Krish applying film to the basement windows and me steaming some huge table cloths for the reception. And he said ‘Naomi’ was on her way. Naomi is Krish’s cousin and very close to Moh. I liked her right away. She turned up with her husband, Rana, and Krish’s dad. A full house already and we were planted in Krish’s old bedroom. That’s a strange feeling, since I knew it from before. It’s a lot tidier now!
Everything was nice. We had some food, we chatted, and it felt like we’d all known each other for years and years. I love when that happens!
The next day more work but that evening Naomi and I got dressed for the Mendhi night at Sharon’s family home. I’d arrived in Toronto with five outfits for the five wedding days. My wardrobe has never looked so fancy.
Sharon’s family lives in Woodbridge, which is just north west of Toronto. When we arrived, there were giant ceramic elephants in the driveway and family members were sitting in deckchairs on the drive and in the open garage. Someone told me to go to the tent in the back garden to get my mendhi done but when I arrived, there was quite a queue, so instead I went to get food from the large containers on tables in the garage.
I have become accustomed to Guyanese food. In fact, when I worked at TVOntario in my 20s my best friend, Jackie, was from Georgetown. She taught me how to make a great curry and cook up rice. So when I met Krish and served him a curry he was surprised I made it that way. I’d never given it any thought till then. The thing is that there are dishes that the Guyanese cook that are always the same. At every event, there they are – predictably. The cook up rice, the curries, the ‘chow mein’ (their version), and on and on. Some things I like and some things I could do without – being food-centred I care about this stuff and there are only some things that I’d like to know how to make myself.
The Henna or Mendhi night is an evening that the bride spends with her female friends and family prior to the wedding in order to get their hands, arms and sometimes feet painted with Henna. The Henna paste is used to create intricate and beautiful temporary tattoos on the skin. I’ve wanted to do this for years!
Back in the tent, I waited for my turn to have my hands decorated. I decided that I wanted something traditional – ‘It’s my first time. Impress me,’ I said. I wanted the back of my right hand and the palm of my left hand decorated. She did an amazing job. It was pretty hypnotising too, how fast she worked on the intricate design.
We
We ate fresh fruit and got bitten by mosquitoes and Sharon’s little cousin danced for us. The video is at the end of this blog.
By then, we got ready to go home. All of Sharon’s family pitched in to fill boxes of Indian biscuits and sweets to be given away at the wedding. Lots of industry.
The first day was done!
Sharon and Mohan’s wedding – all the blogs