Day 4.6

The wedding. If you read my first post, you'ld know I met Chirag and his wife to be Leena on the airplane on the way from Atlanta to Cancun. He insisted I attend the wedding on Saturday,so my sister in her new Mayan dress and me in my most comfortable pair of jeans took the bus down the strip about 7km to the hotel they were staying. Well, actually two busses since the first one dropped us off too early.

We found most of the wedding party in the lobby of the Fiesta Americana Condesa hotel, and introduced Paige to Chirag, and met Chirag's best friend and others which we were to sit with later. He seemed happy we actually showed up. Many of his friends were already filled in on the story of our meeting, so I was 'the one the met on the airplane down to Cancún.' Apparently I left enough of an impression!

This is somewhat of a traditional Hindu wedding with a Cancún destination twist, but definatly eye-opening non the less. My interpretation is as I understand or what I was told but feel free to correct me,

The groom's side, of which Paige and I were part of, marches (dances) in a procession into the bride's village, the groom on an elephant or white horse (where here the animals were omitted and was more like the up the road to the hotel). Here, now back inside the lobby of the hotel there is more dancing. The brides parents appear to bless? the groom in some ceremonial fashion?

From México

Another tradition was the 'stealing' of the groom's shoes off of his feet, for reasons I'll document later, but ended in a puppy-pile of people on the floor trying to claim the shoes.

We proceed down to the waterfront behind the hotel where they have a beautiful canopy on a stage where the ceremony is to take place. I really had no idea what to expect, and nether did some of his non-Indian/Hindu friends but it was an elaborate and enchanting ceremony of which lasted aproximatly 2 hours.

The Hindu priest did a great job of explaining the different reasons for each portion of the ceremony, and the provided program helped fill in the rest. For any interested, I'll post a copy of the program when I have access to a scanner. There was a considerable empasis on love, spirituality, togetherness and companionship, more so than I've seen in any of the Christian weddings I've been to. There was also all kinds of food involved as well, like milk and honey, and various other sweets. Even a part where they feed eachother! There were lot of actual “activities” with symbolic representation, more so than just the lighting of a candle and such (although they did that too)

From México

After the ceremony was finished, the bride and groom walked down the isle where the groom was stopped and expected to negotiate with money for his shoes from the one who stole them earlier. Interesting traditions!

From México

We stayed for cocktails and munchies before the dinner and reception, where we met more of the friends and family. I regret not being able to personally thank Chirag for accepting us in this life event, but I was truly honored and told his friend to wish him the best in his journeys. I promised to catch up with him on Facebook later. This was an experience I won't forget.

Around 6:30 we made our way back on the bus to find Mom and some steak for dinner. I wanted my arranchera steak finally, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Except for various service issues, the food was decent. Had to return my margarita once, mom and Paige's had plastic chunks of the tamper seal ring ground up in it. Appitizer was wrong, etc, etc. Probably wouldn't return here again.

From México

Had my last beer from the cooler out on the beach since I'll need to pack everything up to leave Cancún and travel to Merida tomorrow. What a great day!