Photo's of the Hindu marriage ceremony

To begin the ceremony, the Groom's side, family and friends, gather at one side of the resort. Here is Quentin and Kai dressed for the occasion!

 Eryn helps Ethan get ready. He wears a veil of beads over his face, because traditionally the bride and groom  don't see each other before the ceremony, they are meeting for the first time.

Ethan rides a decorated horse, and his family and friends accompany him to where the bride's family is, singing and dancing.

 We are supposed to make alot of noise, and this process took about 45 minutes. There was a band playing and we yelled and sang (Oh Canada and every camp song we could think of!) When we arrive the men of each family greet their counterpart (father greets father, brother greets brother, cousin greets cousin, one by one) by putting a garland around the other's neck.This is a photo of Scott being greeted. After they each have a garland around their neck it turns into a wrestling match until one of them picks the other up, causing the winning side to cheer!

 

 Sapna arriving for the ceremony with the women.

The ceremony.

Photo's of the Mendhi

The Mendhi is the party for the women, the day before the wedding. This is a photo of Sapna having henna painted on her arms. She can't move so Ethan is feeding her lunch!

 Women choosing their bangles.

Photo's of the Sangeet and the Christian Wedding

Dressed up and dancing at the Sangeet, the night before the wedding.

The Christian Wedding

The Sinclair Clan

Riding Yaks!

Cleansing Ceremony

This will take a little explanation!

Today we had the cleansing ceremony in the morning for Sapna and Ethan. Sapna's family was on one side of the room and Ethan's family on the other. Ethan sat on a little stool and the family spread tumeric on him, and then on each other. It is wild and crazy and turned into a wrestling match in tumeric for some of the guys! Sapna's family did the same to her, as you can see!

We have some wonderful pictures, and many, many thanks to Rob for spending a few hours with me this afternoon trying to figure out why we can't upload pictures. After two hours we figured it out and we were able to upload! Now we have to resize the pictures we want to put on, so we are working on that and they should be added soon.

After the cleansing ceremony the women came together to have henna painted on their hands. That has taken most of the day, as there are so many women here. The results are beautiful, we will show you pictures tomorrow. Sapna sat on her throne for about 6 hours having her hands and arms painted.

Tonight we dress up in special clothes and have a party. I know the wedding party, and Sapna and Ethan have been practicing dances all week, so they will entertain us!

Now Manali!

Today was a full day of driving on the scary mountain roads with the cows, donkeys, monkeys and dogs.
Early evening we arrived at the beautiful resort where the wedding is being held. We arrived to a band playing, horns blowing, lights, even a banner - Sapna Weds Ethan! It was very exciting! The resort is beautiful, views of the mountains, gardens, so much to do and see. Tomorrow is a free day and people have a choice of - paragliding, hot air balloon ride, white water rafting, trekking etc. It is getting late and I think the disco downstairs is just starting up. Tomorrow is the first day we won't have an early wake up call, so I think the younger people will party tonight!
Anne

Another stop on our way to Manali!

We spent the night in Dharamsala and the next morning we all piled in the cars and headed down the mountain to take part in the Dham in Bhadwar. The ancestors of the Mahajan family belong to a small village called Tika Nagrota which is 3 km from Bhadwar, they still have a home there and that is where we all met in the courtyard. There was a fire ceremony with Sapna and Ethan's family which we all took part in. After that we were served a very interesting meal. We all sat cross legged on strips of cloth and a banana leaf was put before us and rice and lots of different sauces were placed on the leaf we had alot of fun eating with our fingers, trying not to make a huge mess! After we finished the village people all filed in to share the meal. The day concluded with a walk through the mango orchards.
Anne

More about our trip to Manali

After the train ride we all piled into 21 cars/vans and headed to the mountains - destination Dharamsala. Mix the crazy driving here, with the hairpin turns on the road, with the cliffs on one side (no barriers at all) and the rock on the other side, throw in people, flocks of sheep, lots of cows, donkeys, dogs, monkeys and chickens with cars and tourist buses and you will have an idea of what our day was like. Scott and I were at the front of the van and we could feel ourselves trying to brake constantly. We had a few close calls!
When we arrived at Dharamsala our rooms were not ready so we set out to explore. The town is all hills and tiny shops. This is the first place in India where we could easily walk! No one hassled us, everyone enjoyed walking the city, talking to the shop owners, no pressure here.
We ended up following the sound of the monks chanting, and arrived at the Dalai Lama's temple just as the service was ending. After going through security, we were able to go upstairs where the service was held, thousands of monks everywhere, spin the pray wheels, take off our shoes and walk through the temple. Amazing!
Downstairs we were able to witness a historic event. Just before we left on this trip the Dalai Lama announced that he was stepping down as the political leader, but would continue to be the spiritual leader of the Tibet people. The day we were there everyone was voting, we are not sure what for, but there were alot of cameras recording the event. At one end all the monks lined up with their passports waiting to vote, at the other end the Tibet people lined up. The polling booths were made with colourful flags. It was a memorable experience for us.
Anne

We are in Manali...Finally!

But I first I will tell you how we got here.
On Sunday night we had one of our biggest India adventures, we took an overnight train. It takes alot of organization to transport 80 people through the train station in Delhi, get us settled in our proper spots safely. We had to carry our luggage so that was the first issue. We had to go up and down stairs so if you couldn't handle your luggage they hired a couple of the porters and piled the luggage on their carts. They just got it strapped down when about  6 porters started fighting, pushing, shoving, yelling. We just watched until they worked it out and then we were lead through the bustling train station, up and down stairs, through crowds of people to the spot where our train was arriving. Sapna said, this is where it gets crazy! We were all given our car and seat number and when the train arrived it was crazy, everyone trying to find their spot with all their luggage in tow. Somehow it all worked out, and with a few adjustments everyone had a place to sleep. They gave us a boxed dinner, after which we found out they threw the garbage off the train when we were done. This country has a serious problem with garbage. Sleeping on the train was an interesting experience...the berths are very tiny, you care barely turn over. We got about as much sleep as we did on the airplane.
I have some pictures, but this computer won't let me load them...maybe I can fix that by tomorrow.
Anne