Bangla Wedding & Backpacking part 1
How does the story begin?
Back in the dates I wished I could visit all my friends around the world! I got this dream when I was at my very first time studying abroad. Maybe because I liked travelling or maybe because I was sad no one came to visit me and most of the kids got visitors.
Little did I know that in the next few years most of my trips regardless of the purpose would bring me to happy encounters with friends across the globe. Business or pleasure — I could find friends around Europe and Asia easily! Having a swing dance party In Hamburg after meetings with consultants for work to meeting the new decade at a Bangladeshi weeding while backpacking across Asia were just of the few highlights!
So yes, here we are at the dawn of next dimension of 20s — the 2020s. My 20s have been the starting point of all this cosmopolitan vagabonding. And now this second stage of the 20s is almost smooth transition to the next phase of wondering.
And here we go on this trip in South East Asia — the friends from before just appear with message replies on Instagram! Muni was one of her closest friends when I was in the States! Now almost 10 years later —we were going to spend few quite significant events together! Christmas, close relatives weddings and the start of the new decade! Here we go — great beaches in the south islands, one of the greatest megapolises of Asia for few days, a short stop in Macao to pick up something and smooth transition to the most densely populated and most polluted capital in Asia if not the world! Dhaka, here I come!
Great warm welcome at the airport & quick 2h traffic ride to the home of the Muni!
The visit in Bangladesh (a muslim country where booze is illegal) started with the most ridiculous detour stop at the Romanian consulate to source bottles of white wine entirely legally!
After this important stop — the real Christmas experience started — warm reception in Muni’s family and also in Dipros’ family (her husband). I arrived on 24/12 and it really felt like Christmas — I got my very first and super fine Sari as a present and also quite a warm & big warming party with a few drinks and puff at the end! The beginning was more than promising!
The Christmas for me was actually the wedding season start if not peak for Bangladeshi people! In the winter — is the time for all the weddings in Dhaka! It is hectic & messy and interesting at the same time.
Bangladesh is a muslim country but the influence of India is gigantic in most of the customs and traditions today! The Bangla wedding ahead was to block the next few days of the calendar with festivities, emotions, gifts, a lot of transportation and beautiful vanity!
It all begins with the families — the most valuable pulse of the Bangla culture! Always in the centre — generating support, giving care and also demanding respect, abiding the norms and cherishing the origin & ties! To me — the solo traveller accustomed to depend only on me for the last few months, this was a totally new world, but a friendly and welcoming world! Because all this comes with a great amount of warmth, care and love!
I just plunged in the wedding season, yet I believe it is fair to start with the invite! In the Western world — all the invites for the weddings come from the guys who are getting married! In this case — the invites are not coming from the ones to be wed, yet the official invite is always from the family! And this sets the tone for the all the rest of the customs in the wedding week and family is in the centre of the events!
With the family I was visiting — this was the 3rd wedding they were about to bring to life and the excitement was tremendous, so was the care and motivation. Still the experience and the smoothness of the talks could be felt in a number of situations! Of course the vanity and food topics were always hot — so kept going for long discussions! But they were all happy to have a guest now, rather than earlier! So It was great that I visited now rather than 2 Years ago for Muni’s wedding!
As every bridal event the preparation is long, exhaustive and vital for the success! I will not speak long — I would only assume — that this multiway and multi locations events really demand a system of family teamwork that is unimaginable for me!
The flow of the wedding is about 7 days or more. It all starts with preparation of beautiful gifts — aka the Dalas. Then there is a beautiful ceremony called Holud; that is followed by a reception at the bride place and finally a wedding ceremony. Follow me to see how much fun I had being part of this beautiful event.
The Dalas
On of the starting events is the family getting together for a preparation of dalas — gifts for each family! The number of the gifts is quite lengthy — all the close relatives of the bride and groom get presents on a beautifully arranged plates! Starting from parents, sisters, cousins! All the dalas are arranged by the younger girls of the family under the supervision of some of the elder girls and should be brought to the reciprocal family by the relatives who are younger by the bride or groom respectively!
In my case — we were decorating the dalas ourselves and it was a lot of fun having to fold, ornament and complete the dalas with the sisters and sisters in law and cousins of the groom!
The most exciting was to see few things — the gifts to the bride, and how the family of hers is appreciating the jewelry presents!
An odd fact is that only groom’s family (younger sisters, sisters-in-law and cousins) is going to bring the presents; he is not joining — the same is true for the bride!
Luckily for me — I could attend both days of dala exchanges & help bringing dalas around! What I loved the most is to see how all the ladies in the families dress up for these events! I love the lavishness and the beauty of Bangla Saris & Cameses! A game of tones and beautiful textiles!
The groom family would open the dalas together! Every piece one by one — and celebrate and share what they have got! It really feels like Christmas but in an expanded version of the family — all sisters and cousins! And lots of beautiful trays full of gifts rather than boxes!
If you liked the start of the story, you can follow me through the next days of the wedding :)
Some favourite shots from these days
