We are thankful to Professor Gil Pasternak for introducing us to PhD student Aleks Todorov who has been brilliant writing and also working on the SEO for our archive which we are very excited about. A massive thanks to Aleks for his hard work. This I the first in a series of blogs he has written!
Marriage is a large event in families and it’s only natural for this event to be present in an archive housing only family photographs such as the Apna Heritage Archive.
Firstly, it is important to recognize that the immigrants from Punjab do not form one monolithic group. The diaspora is diverse in religion, practices, and customs.
Kristina Myrvold from Lund University has explained there is a need for more research needed to form a more encompassing study on ceremonial practices of various communities in Punjab, however there are some common practices that are still seen in the Punjabi community in the UK and in Punjab.
In Sikh culture the marriage ceremony is short,) the planning for the event can take a year to plan, and a wedding includes several pre-wedding and post-wedding ceremonies and rituals. The ceremony itself involves hymns composed by different Gurus and it serves as a confirmation that Sikhism is a distinct religion from Islam and Hinduism. After the marriage the couple will attain one soul in two bodies. Marriage is considered holy and is necessary precursor to fulfil to achieve the highest form of love – the love for the divine, and it is a parental duty to see their unmarried children married off and married life is seen as the most natural living.
In terms of practices the wedding ceremony encompasses both rituals based on the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy text, scripture) and practices based more on folklore than religion, such as protections against evil eye, fertility and hopes for a long life.
The pre-wedding ceremonies include bringing of gifts for the marriage, dressing the bride in red coloured garments. The bride (and to some extent the groom) will receive henna art on the hands by an artist, followed by ritual application of vatna (turmeric, gram flour and mustard oil paste).
The groom would depart for the wedding on a white horse, accompanied by people singing folk songs. The wedding ceremony is very ceremonial and requires adequate code of behaviour from the bride and the groom and hymns are sang explaining the four stages of married life and love and the importance of duty towards the family and community. After the wedding ceremony, it is observed in the UK the bride would return to her parents’ home and the groom to collect her.
It is important to understand that marriage practices are complex and varied and they continuously undergo changes and furthermore have significant difference between the rural and urban practices.
In conclusion a wedding is a fundamental milestone in a person’s life and as a European I consider it an extreme privilege to be able to learn more about Punjabi Sikh culture and customs through my work for the Apna Heritage Archive and through the lens of very personal community photographs.
Bibliography:
Edwards, Judson Michael. "Wedding Customs in Monsoon Wedding."
Abbi, Kumool. “Sikh Middle Class, Panjabi Cinema and the Politics of Memory.” Sikh Formations 14, no. 1 (2018): 91–108. doi:10.1080/17448727.2018.1434984.