Holi: The Funnest Day of the Year

What do you get when you mix coloured paint and water? FUN!

Indian Wedding Part 2 - The Wedding

Sunday morning we arrived at the same hall just as the groom was arriving. A band was playing and the groom was seated outside being blessed by the priest - surrounded by family and friends.

Everyone went inside, the the groom went onstage with a white sheet held up in front of him while the bride entered. They stood on either side of the white sheet until it was taken away and they faced each other sitting down after that.

Many rituals and blessings occurred. At one point rice was passed around to all the guests and everyone stood up at the same time and threw it towards them.

They sat holding hands, a coconut on top of their hands and coconut milk poured over their hands. Many family members were on stage with them. This went on for some time and unlike a western wedding the guests got up,walked around and talked while this was going on.

Eventually the grooms sister came to say hello to us and took Michael and I onstage to get a better view and take some photos of the ceremony. Then she said we should go upstairs and eat and come back down afterwards. Up we all went and the upper hall was full  of tables and chairs with banana leaves laid out. It was full of guests being served food. Very tasty Indian food and lots of different dishes.

Once we finished eating we went downstairs near the stage where different blessings were still going on. The four of us were brought up onstage to give our wishes and have a photo taken with the bride and groom.

Then more blessings and rituals. Finally they walked around the stage several times and then down the aisle and outside where the band played while they continued with more blessings.

The coconut is obviously a very important part of the ceremony. At the beginning when the groom was outside they smashed two coconuts, next the pouring of coconut milk over the hands as the couple held a coconut. As the couple walked around the stage they followed his sister who was carrying fruit on a plate, including (I think) coconut. And just like the night before, we each received a wedding favor of...a coconut.

Indian Wedding Part 1 - The Reception

The Wedding Reception

We were invited to an Indian wedding this weekend - finally! Well, we had been invited to a couple before, but both were people we didn't know and out of town so we didn't go. So we were really happy to be invited to the wedding of someone that Michael works with.

An Indian wedding is very different from a western wedding. For starters, the wedding reception was Sat. night and then the wedding was Sunday morning. Apparently most people go to one or the other, not both. As happy as I was to go to both, two events in 24 hrs did cause me a bit of stress - it meant wearing two saris!

At home, Michael tried for 45 minutes to pin the dupatta (the "scarf" part that drapes over the shoulder). He did a pretty good job but I looked a bit like a football player on one side. We did have to go to another event first at the Leela hotel so I went to reception and asked the girl at the desk to help me. No problem, looked like she did it all the time and even Michael had to admit it looked a lot better.

We got to the wedding reception at 8:30pm and basically what happens is the bride and groom stand on a stage all night, receiving guests and having their photos taken with everyone. There was a long line up on the left side of the hall but all of a sudden someone whisked us up the middle aisle and straight up onto the stage. We said hello, had a photo taken, and were introduced to the grooms mother, father, and sister. The ladies all wore nice saris and lots of gold jewellery (I was definitely lacking in jewellery), the men wore dress pants and shirts.

Next, we were directed upstairs where lots of people were already mingling and enjoying an Indian buffet. We had a bite to eat and talked to a few people from Michael's work. And then we were off - we were there all of 40 minutes!

Kadlekai Parishe - Groundnut Festival

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I thought Festival season was over but it just keeps on going...
This week was the Kadlekai Parishe, or the Groundnut Festival. This 3-day festival takes place only in Bangalore near the Bull Temple. Of course there is always a legend to go along with a festival. This one has to do with a bull in the 1500's - every full moon a bull would charge into the groundnut fields and damage the crop. The farmers started to offer prayers to Basava (Nandi) to stop the bull and pledged to offer their first crop.

Subsequently, an Idol of Basava was found close by. It has been said that the Idol was growing rapidly, and the farmers nailed an iron peg on the head of the idol to stop it from growing. Later in the year 1537, a temple to ‘Dodda Basava’ was built on a small hill and the idol was put inside. This temple is known as the Bull Temple here in Bangalore. The bull is black and decorated with garlands.

 
Every year, farmers from surrounding villages come to the Bull Temple and offer their annual harvest of groundnut as offering to Lord Basava. This is accompanied by the annual fair, which is known as the Kadlekai Parishe.

I went on the third and final day of the festival. There were lots of vendors selling their groundnuts on carts or on the sidewalk. There was a small fair with rides, astrologers reading palms, people selling inexpensive jewellery, bangles, toys and lots of snacks, rice, fruit and sugarcane.

 
One interesting thing that I tried from a street vendor was a twelve year old root - sliced thinly, dipped in sugar and lime - delicious! Wish I knew what it was.

 

There were balloons, and horns and bubbles. It was like a festive street party centered around the Bull Temple where I'm sure most people made their way to give an offering to Nandi (the bull) himself.

Ganesh Festival - The Life Cycle of a Ganesh Statue

The Ganesh Festival is one of my favorites and this year I have seen it from beginning to end. Here's the low down on the life cycle of a Ganesh statue:

It all starts with mud.

In Pottery Town potters start making Ganesh statues six months in advance. They churn out fingers and toes, bellies and trunks and heads.

Eventually all the parts are put together: big and small, painted and unpainted, simple and ornate. Some are funny, some are happy, some are scary.

Ganesh is one of the most popular Hindu Gods: the God of wisdom and good fortune; the destroyer of sorrows and the remover of obstacles.

Every family carefully chooses a Ganesh statue to take home. Villages build "pandals," small tentlike structures, to house a larger Ganesh - where everyone can go and worship Ganesh together. It is very much a festival-like atmosphere. Impromptu dancing and music are very much part of the celebration.

The festival carries on for eleven days. During that time everyone chooses a day (certain days are more auspicious than others of course) to gather together - whether it be a small family or the entire village - and take the revered statue to a lake, ocean, river and immerse the statue in water. Sometimes it becomes a procession with drums and singing and Ganesh's pulled along the city streets on tractors. Sometimes it is a small Ganesh carried in a plastic bag.

At the lake puja usually occurs: some chanting, clapping of hands, ringing of bells and lighting of a flame. A coconut is cracked open and an offering of food and flowers is given.

Finally the statue, be it big or small, painted or unpainted, simple or ornate, is dunked into the water three times and then completely immersed and let go under the water...

where it eventually disolves...

...and becomes mud...

Bangalore Pottery Town

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Last week a group of us went to Pottery Town for a photography course. The last time I really took photos manually was with my old Contax. Since the days of film are long gone, that camera sits back in Canada in a storage locker. Up until last Christmas I had resorted to 'point and shoot' cameras, but here in India where I take so many photos, I wanted more options and the ability to take manual photos again.

For Christmas last year Michael got me my Nikon 5000 and although I like the feel of it, I've been rather lazy, using mostly the automatic setting - basically 'point and shoot.' So when I heard about this photography course to Pottery Town, I jumped at it. Then I sat down and quickly reviewed appeture, shutter and other manual settings.

The course was just what I needed and Pottery Town was such a great little place to take photos. At any time of the year the potters can be found molding their wares but right now it is particularly exciting. Elephant-headed Ganesh statues of all sizes and colors are sculpted in time for Ganesh Chaturthi, the 10-day festival that begins this week.

Every family will buy a Ganesh statue, worship it for the ten days and then at the end they immerse it in a body of water - a lake or the ocean.

We walked around the small village, trying out different settings, trying to get some depth and movement in the photos. All year round the potters make clay cups for drinking, clay pots, masks, and for Diwali - diyas, which are small candleholders. Their wares are on their balconies, in front of homes and on the sidewalks waiting to be sold.

This young man goes to college until 2:00pm and then comes homes and churns out about 500 small diyas a day. He was nice enough to let us take photos of him at work and then even let us get our hands dirty and  have a try - it's not as easy as it looks!

Holi - Festival of Colors

Holi is the first Hindu festival of the year, celebrating the coming of spring. There are different legends attached to Holi, according to the region of India one lives in. Whatever Holi represents, it is a joyful festival.

Although the official Holi Festival isn’t until next week, our community celebrated “Playing with Colors” this weekend. I wasn’t sure what to expect and had no idea how many people would show up.

What a surprise to find so many, young and old, throwing paint and water on each other. Everyone giggled as they carefully painted each other’s faces, dumped dry paint over someone’s head or chased down the cleanest person and threw a bucket of water at them. Everyone was in good spirits.

It was so much fun and no one went away clean or dry! Most of the paint came off surprisingly well in the shower. The rest came off in the afternoon at the pool.