Thursday, 6 June 2019

The wedding at the age of 60 - The groom and The Bride are same

Hello all,

I was watching this movie 27 dresses, and something just striked me to write about weddings.
If you are from southern part of India, you would have definitely heard about 'shashtiyapoorthi' which is a Tamil word to represent the marriage which happens when the groom turns to the age 60.
Recently I attended the 60th marriage of my aunt and uncle at a famous temple named thirukadaiyur which is located at tamilnadu(India).

It's a beautiful ritual function where it happens for two days. The relatives of groom and the bride's are invited for the function to bless as well as receive blessings from them.
The previous day evening of the function, priest in the temple will arrange for the Pooja and the homa which is called as ritual. Many couple come to that temple and perform their 60th marriage. So this temple has planned a beautiful space for performing this marriage and rituals.
Priest will explain us why are we doing this homa(a Sanskrit word for ritual) step by step and he makes us understand all the mantras recited by them.

In my aunt and uncle marriage, we had three priest performing the ceremony. They had this homa space where they have pure ghee bowl and with lots of ayurvedic herbs to be put on the homa space which is filled with tiny woods and they fire it intially with camphor and start the mantras.
They have each separate plates of different herbs like roots, elaichi etc.. they ask the relatives to sit as a circle and start to pass the herbs plate to each one and then reach the couple and then they put it on the homa space which is now on fire. its like parcing the parcel and we enjoy it.

After all the plates are done they perform the main Pooja and ask everyone to perform namaskaram(bending the complete body as a respect to god) for more than 16 times.
After this the couple are asked to go around the temple to pray the gods. The main god in the temple is Lord Shiva and Goddess Abirami.

Next day early morning we all went to the temple again for the main ceremony for the couple to tie the knot which is called mangalsutra which is performed in almost all Indian Hindu weddings.

But now they have so many pots filler of water which is decorated with mango leaves and a coconut on the top of the pots. Everyone is asked to pour the water on the couple as a ritual. After this the couple is given new dresses and with garlands asked to come for performing the main ceremony.

With music's like tabla etc, the couple gets married. The groom tied the mangalsutra which is made up of a yellow thick thread with a gold symbol around the brides neck and everyone around them blesses them with flowers.
Again the couple go around the temple and seeks blessings from the Lord Shiva and the goddess Abirami.

My uncle and Aunt is married for more than 30 years with a daughter and son. It's a practise that the children should conduct this function for their parents and get their blessings.

This same ritual is performed for the couple when the groom turns to 80 which is called sathabhishega  and next will be when the groom turns to 100 which is called poorna abhishekam.

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