Making Memories

The following is the general breakdown for a Traditional Sri Lankan – Poruwa Wedding

 A Poruwa Ceremony is a traditional Sinhalese wedding ceremony with Buddhist influences. The ceremony takes place on a “Poruwa”, a beautifully decorated, traditional wooden platform. The ceremony involves a series of rituals performed by the bride and groom, and their families.

The Groom will be assured by the Traditional Kandian Dancers along with groom’s family and relations to Bride’s home.

Groom will be welcomed by Bride’s Brother / Cousin washing his feet. As a gesture of good will in return the groom will give him a gold ring.

Bride’s mother will welcome the groom at the entrance with a glass of clear water decorated with white Jasmin Flowers before proceed to Poruwa Location. The groom and his relatives assemble on the right of the Poruwa.

After that Bride will be assured by the Kandian dancers & the bride’s parents will accompany her to Poruwa Location with relations. The bride’s family gathers at the left. As per the auspicious time along with the sound of traditional drums ( Magul Bera) and Melodies ( Hak Gediya ) ,the bride and groom will step in to Poruwa leading with the right foot first. They greet each other with palms held together in the traditional manner. The ceremony officiant ( ashtaka person) then presents betel leaves to the couple which they accept and hand back to him to be placed on the Poruwa.

The bride’s father places the right hand of the bride on that of the groom as a symbolic gesture of handing over the bride to the groom. The groom’s brother hands over a tray with seven sheaves of betel leaves with a coin placed in each. The groom holds the tray while the bride takes one leaf at a time and drops it on the Poruwa. The groom then repeats this process. The groom’s brother hands a gold necklace to the groom who in turn places it on the bride’s neck.

The maternal uncle enters the Poruwa and ties the small fingers of the bride and groom with a single gold thread ( Pirith Thread – to symbolize universal unity) and then pours water over the fingers.

Six girls will then bless the marriage with a traditional Buddhist chant (Jayamangala Gatha).

The groom presents to his bride a white cloth which in turn is presented to the bride’s mother. This is an expression of the groom’s gratitude to his mother-in-law.

The bride’s mother will then present a plate of milk rice specially cooked for the occasion to the bride who feeds a piece to the groom .The groom then feeds the bride.

As the newly married couple steps down from the Poruwa, the groom’s family member breaks a fresh coconut (traditionally maternal uncle of bride).

First thing that the couple do once they steps down from Poruwa is the Oil Lamp Ceremony. Traditional Oil Lamp will be used. This resembles bride brings the light to the new family as she will be taken to Groom’s Home to start a new life.

Saubagya Table or table of prosperity. A must in a traditional Poruwa wedding.

Milk Fountain (Kiri Kala) is a new adoption of pouring champagne into the local wedding culture.

Couple will be seated at the Settee (Sofa) to take the immediate family pictures. Then couple will walk up to all the guests tables & specially start worshiping all the elderly guests of the reception and thank them for attending to bless the couple.

Towards the end of the reception, after all the guests have eaten it is the time for groom’s family to proceed with vote of thanks to bride’s family for organizing the Wedding Ceremony and providing food for groom’s side relations & friends. Soon after this speech ends, a relation from Bride side will proceed with bride’s giveaway speech. At the end of the speech couple will worship Bride’s parents first as Bride will be leaving from her home. Then Bride’s parents will officially hand over her to groom & his parents. This is a very emotional moment as most of the bride’s family are going to miss their daughter / sister.

At last, when the couple are getting ready to leave from home, bride’s mother stays at the main door with a glass of clear water decorated with white Jasmin Flowers. Bride will take a sip of water before leave from home. (This symbolizes as the mother has brought up the child by breast feeding her when she was born & now when she’s leaving at least to drink a glass of water given by her own birth mother)

The following is the general breakdown for a Traditional Sri Lankan – Homecoming

 The homecoming of the bride marks the end of a Sri Lankan wedding. It takes place a few days after the wedding ceremony.

The Homecoming is given by the groom’s family, and signifies that the groom is “bringing home” a new bride. Long ago, this is what literally happened, as brides went from their homes to their groom’s home when they got married. It’s a Sri Lankan wedding tradition and another huge celebration with lots of dancing, drinking, eating and socialising.

Bride is presented with a cloth during the Poruwa wedding Ceremony & the sari  & jacket.( Usually made of red Material is handed over to the Bride by the groom’s mother ) She will wear in a couple of days’ time at the ceremony known as the Homecoming, hosted by the groom’s family.

Service In Brief 

First the groom and the best man enter from the side of the church. Then the bridesmaids and groomsmen escort one another up the aisle, followed by the maid of honor, who enters alone. And last but certainly not least, the bride and her father (or another male family member) make their grand entrance

In Brief

The actual Muslim wedding is known as a nikah. It is a simple ceremony, It is officiated by the Maulvi, a priest also called Qazi. Among the important wedding participants are the Walises, or the fathers of both groom and bride and the bride’s legal representative. It is the bride’s father who promises his daughter’s hand to the groom, a ritual known as the Kanya-dhan. Also in this formal occasion, particularly in conventional Islamic weddings, when men and women typically have separate seating arrangements which the bride does not have to be present so long as she sends two witnesses to the drawn-up agreement. Normally, the ceremony consists of reading from the Qur’an, and the exchange of vows in front of witnesses for both partners which will come from the family of bridegroom.

The Indian Islamic wedding ceremony is also preceded by a marriage procession known as the groom’s baraat. From this convoy arrives the groom, who will share a sherbet drink with a brother of his bride at the place of the marriage ceremony. This drinking ritual happens as the sisters of the bride engage in tomfooleries and playfully strike guests using flower-filled cudgels.

Blessings and prayers are then given by older women and other guests to the couple. In return the groom gives salutatory salaam wishes to his blessers, especially to female elders.The bride also usually receives gifts known generally as the burri, which may be in the form of gold jewelries, garments, money, and the like

The marriage contract is known as the Nikaahnama, and is signed not only by the couple but also by the Walises and the Maulvi.

After the Nikah, the now married couple joins each other to be seated among gender-segregated attendees. The groom is customarily brought first to the women’s area in order for him to be able to present gifts to his wife’s sister. Although jointly seated, the bride and the groom can only observe one another via mirrors, and a copy of the Quran is placed in between their assigned seats. With their heads sheltered by a dupatta and while guided by the Maulvi, the couple reads Muslim prayers.

After the wedding ceremony, the bride is brought to the house of her husband, where she is welcomed by her mother-in-law, who holds a copy of the Quran over her head.

The wedding reception hosted by the groom family is known as the Valimah or the Dawat-e-walima.

Generally, wedding ceremonies in the United Arab Emirates traditionally involves scheduling the wedding date, preparation for the bride and groom, and carousing with dancing and singing which takes place one week or less prior to the wedding night. Bridal preparation is done by women by anointing the body of the bride with oil, application of perfumes to the bride’s hair, use of creams, feeding the bride with special dishes, washing the bride’s hair with amber and jasmine extracts, use of the Arabian Kohl or Arabian eye liner, and decorating the hands and feet with henna, performed a few days before being wed; during this evening, other members of the bride’s family and guests also place henna over their own hands). The Emirati bride stays at her dwelling for forty days until the marriage night, only to be visited by her family. Later, the groom offers her items that she will use to create the Addahbia, a dowry which is composed of jewelry, perfumes, and silk, among others.

In Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, the traditional Bedouin wedding is a ceremonial that echoes the earliest Arab concept of matrimony, which emphasizes that marital union is not simply a joining together of a man and a woman but the coming together of two families. Traditionally lasting for seven days, Bedouin marriage preparations and celebration starts with the marriage proposal known as the Al Khoutha, a meeting of the groom’s father and bride’s father; the purpose of the groom’s father is to ask the hand of the bride from the bride’s father for marriage; and involves the customary drinking of minty Arab tea. After this, the negotiating families proceed with the Al Akhd, a marriage contract agreement. The bride goes through the ritual of a “bridal shower” known as Laylat Al Henna, the henna tattooing of the bride’s hands and feet, a service signifying attractiveness, fortune, and healthiness. The Al Aadaa follows, a groom-teasing rite done by the friends of the bride wherein they ask compensation after embellishing the bride with henna. The ceremonial also involves a family procession towards the bride’s home, a re-enactment of a war dance known as Al Ardha, and the Zaahbaah or the displaying of the bride’s garments and the gifts she received from her groom’s family. In the earliest versions of Bedouin wedding ceremonies, the groom and the bride goes and stays within a tent made of camel hair, and that the bride is not to be viewed in public during the nuptial proceedings. The wedding concludes with the Tarwaah, when the bride rides a camel towards her new home to live with her husband. After a week, the bride will have a reunion with her own family. Customarily, the groom will not be able to join his bride until the formal wedding procedure ended. The only place where they will finally see each other is at their post-wedding dwelling.