Ever been to a Bangladeshi wedding culture? I you have, of course you have noticed many surprising things. Bangladeshi wedding culture was to offer many more
Music, colors and festivity, if Bangladeshi weddings were to be described in three words, these would just be perfect. Different countries have different cultures and norms when it comes to weddings and wedding related events. But when it comes to South Asia, probably the wedding culture is the most exotic and enriched. If you are from the west, and somehow manage to get yourself in a South Asian wedding ceremony, you’ll simply be amazed to see the difference. Bangladeshi wedding culture is exactly like that. The huge crowd that gathers to celebrate a couple’s wedding is enough to grab anybody’s attention. This article will tell you descriptively about the common customs and traditions of Bangladeshi wedding.
Multiple Events
I don’t know if any of the other regions of the world has this custom of having four multiple events for one single wedding. But as I have already told you, Bangladeshi wedding culture is different from everyone else. There are four different events that take place for a single wedding. These four events are the engagement, separate receptions for the bride and the groom and Gaye Holud. These four different events have different aspects and backgrounds.
You simply can’t expect them to be similar with some minor changes, they are far from that. For example, Gaye Holud in particular, is a ceremony where the relatives and friends of the bride and the groom are smeared tamarind paste. Don’t try to find any reason in this, this doesn’t have any reason apart from good wishes. This is not the only part of this ceremony, many other arrangements do occur, dances for example. And yes, the food that you can eat in such ceremonies will please your tongue for years to come.
Way Too Many Guests
People in Bangladesh want to live keeping the bonding intact. That’s why we still see mostly joint families in both rural and urban areas of this country. Example of such harmony can also be observed in Bangladeshi wedding culture. The number of guests you'll see in a Bengali wedding will overwhelm you. On average, every Bangladeshi wedding features 600-800 guests. Now does it seem like a big number for a wedding gathering? It’s just the average, the highest number can go way higher.
Close and distant relatives, friends, friends of friends, neighbors, colleagues, families of colleagues and many more people from both the sides of the groom and the bride are invited to Bangladeshi weddings. Also, as Bangladeshi families have a tendency to be quite big at times, you can only imagine how many people will attend the receptions and other wedding events.
The Yum-Factor, The Food
It is quite normal for weddings to host dinners at the end of formalities. But no other wedding culture hosts and serves people with so much food. Don’t think that it’s a buffet, it’s even more than that, probably way more. Whoever eats the wedding ‘Kacchi’ of a Bengali wedding, remembers the taste for the rest of their lives. In Chittagong, this can become way more interesting. There is a specialized type of beef called ‘Mezban’ in the port city, which is specially served in weddings.
Apart from the main courses, the appetizers and desserts are enough to make someone lick their lips. In most of the cases these foods are full of fat and cholesterol. But in Bangladeshi wedding culture avoiding the risk of being obese doesn’t exist. The taste of food, and appetite comes before anything else in Bengali wedding dinners.
Guests Don’t Come Empty Handed
You might think that it’s not that different than wedding cultures in other countries or regions, as everyone wants to give some gifts to the newly married couple. Well, you are not wrong, but that is nothing like the gift-culture of Bangladeshi weddings. No one wants to attend a wedding reception if they can’t find a good gift for the couple. In many cases, these gifts are given to the couple so that their new beginning in life can become easier. For example, it is quite common to give home appliances as gifts to newlyweds. As the number of guests in Bangladeshi wedding ceremonies is quite big, just imagine how many gifts can be received by the couple!
And the Ugly
The above mentioned customs of Bangladeshi wedding culture seemed quite brilliant to you, right? But not everything about Bengali weddings is good and holy. The families of the bride and groom are expected to send gifts to each other. There’s nothing wrong with it, but people engage themselves in an unhealthy competition regarding this. The dignity of the custom is determined based on how expensive those gifts are. If the gifts are not expensive, then the receiver’s family will take this as a personal insult. Secondly, harassing the groom on the reception gate and asking for money is another really annoying and bad practice, which is taken quite lightly.
Every single culture has both positives and negatives, and Bangladeshi wedding culture is no different. As a matter of fact, now a large portion of the society is trying to modernize itself, and abandon the bad practices and customs. Now many of the receptions are organized cumulatively, instead of separate ones. But no wonder that Bangladeshi wedding culture will always remain unique and full of surprises.