Every religion has its own unique and different wedding rituals. These rituals reflects their beliefs, traditions and culture.Let us see how Assamese Muslim celebrates and follows wedding rituals.
Pre wedding rituals
Tel diya ceremony
The pre wedding rituals starts with juron or murot tel dia rituals. The groom side’s relatives visits the bride’s home and the groom’s mother , sister or sister in law puts oil in bride’s head and combs her hair. They carry gold, sweets, pithas, fruits, clothes , betel nut and most importantly haldi (turmeric paste) and mehendi for the bride.
Haldi Ceremony
After doing the juron rituals, a day before the nikah ceremony both the bride and groom takes bath in their own homes in the evening time. The relatives puts oil and haldi and gives them blessings for the new chapter of their life. The ladies sings biya geet while the bathing ceremony is going on .
Main wedding ceremony/ Nikah
Nikah is the main formal legal marriage ceremony among Muslim people. The groom along with his family members, and Qazi( who records and witness the wedding contract) goes to the bride’s home for nikah ceremony. The Qazi along with other witness of the families ask the bride and the groom for their consent for the wedding . After the nikah is done, they make dua (pray to god) and the groom side’s people distributes sweets to the people. The bride father handovers his daughter to the groom after the nikah ceremony and this ritual is call khopidia (kanyadan). The groom and his family takes the bride to his home.
The groom’s side relatives welcomes the bride by following various unique rituals. The most common is anguthi bisora ritual where a ring is hidden inside a bowl of rice and whoever (bride and groom) finds it first, wins the game. The family members offers curd and sweet to the newly weds. The bride returns to her home after the rituals are done.
Athmongola or Neuta
The groom visits the bride’s home day after the nikah or few days later to bring the bride home. The groom visits the bride’s home with his family member and the bride’s side relatives cooks 8 dishes for them. Kol posola (banana tree pith) is a mandatory dish that should be prepared on the day of neuta or athmongola. The brides permanently comes with the groom on the day of athmongola. There is also a ritual that the bride should wear the same mekhela chador that she wore during her nikah ceremony that was given by the groom’s side.
Walima or Reception
Walima refers to the reception ceremony of the groom’s side. The bride and also the groom both wears traditional attires and sits together and hosts the people.