Maharashtrian Weddings are popular for their simplicity but ethnicity and the series of rituals makes the wedding beautiful. To make the wedding a great success, not much planning is required but the sacred surroundings of the place make it a special one representing the values of culture of Maharashtrian’s.
The wedding rituals starts with pre wedding ones in which SakharPuda is the first one which marks the starting of wedding process, it is a kind of engagement where both the families from the groom as well as bride side exchanges sugar and gifts.
Now, a formal engagement occurs which is famous as Wang Nischaya where families of groom side and bride side worship in their houses separately. They invite their friends and families for meal and offer them lovely gifts as they are part of happiness in the marriage.
No wedding is complete without Haldi ceremony so how a Marathi Wedding cannot have Haldi Ceremony. In Marathi Wedding Rituals, it is known as Haldi Chadawat which takes place beautifully one day before the wedding in which mango leaves are put in paste of Haldi and get applied on feet first and move slowly to upper body part to cover the whole part. This ceremony includes a lot of fun and entertainment among the family members.
Now, in Simant Puja, Bride’s family will invite the groom’s family and the boy and at the boundary of their home, the mother of the bride will perform puja and will wash feet of the groom. After that, she will tilak the groom with kumkum and they will offer jewellery and gifts to the family of groom.
The Chura ceremony is the last pre wedding ceremony where bride will get dazzling green colored bangles and her friends also get the bangles. The whole ceremony of chura is accompanied by lots of dance, fun and music. The chura of the bride cannot be removed until a month of marriage.
Weddind Day Rituals
In the presence of the priests, both the families announces the wedding at their respective houses and worship the Lord Ganesha and invite him to the wedding and give his blessings to beautiful bride and handsome groom.
On the day of wedding, the bride will get dressed in charming elegant yellow saree which is from her maternal side and she wears a string of pearls on her for head which add compliment to her beauty. She worships the Goddess Parvati and offers her prayers, she sit like this only until she called for sitting in Mandapa.
It is followed by the Lagana Muhurut where bride will get escorted to Lagan Mandap with her uncle from maternal side. On reaching, both the groom and bride will not see each other and after the completion of chanting of mantras, they can see each other as cloth is removed in between them. They will exchange garlands of flowers which is quite exciting ceremony and then Saptapadi will occur. The bride’s father will do the Kanyadaan which is followed by Mangalsutra ceremony. Newly wedded couple will move to their house for Grah Pravesh.
