Indian Wedding

We happened upon an Indian wedding street procession (groom's delivery to the bride).  The pix are fun, but for the true flavor of the celebration (music, movement, dancing), watch the video below. Do be warned that it's not for those with trouble viewing amateur moving pictures.  It's highly amateur, if I do say so myself. 

                                        The thumbnail here shoes the groom in his carriage.


 

The procession began with these Riders Riding,  dressed up and bearing weapons.  I guess they are protecting the huge party of revelers behind them from being assaulted as they create all sorts of mayhem in the streets and snarl traffic.


Even the horses wore their finest outfits.

 

Pretty scary.

Next came the four Ladies in Saris atop camels. They represented the wise men coming to see the baby Jesus.

The procession was proceeding rather slowly due to the traffic or something, so the Ladies look bored from time to time. I think they are jealous of the revelers.

Following the Ladies Riding were the Lords a Leaping.  These were the festively dressed gents having a very good time and assigned to get all the women along the street to join them.  I was only pardoned because of my bandaged ankle.

Next came about 25 brightly adorned musicians who were jamming their souls out, if not their soles. They wore pleated hats, gold belts and gold boots.  Unfortunately there are no photos.  Their instruments included drums, horns and anything loud. Sort of like a steel drum marching band.

After some sound equipment and additional musicians rolled by, next came the Groom seated in an elaborate open carriage made of what appears to be hammered silver...?  With him are 2 young children, which Tiki said is traditional. I thought maybe it wasn't his first marriage. (He is shown above in the video thumbnail).

Lastly were the Ladies Dancing. How are their outfits different than the ones we saw in the zoo that day, you ask?  Not much, but they had paid lots of attention to  hair, makeup and shoes from what I could tell.

So much more than a partridge in a pear tree.
Warm greetings from India, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Jane