On 26^th January 2019, FSL-India-Mysore’s Coordinator organised a Cultural Event (CE) for our regular LTV volunteers. Every month, we organise a cultural event for our regular volunteers and we take them to any cultural and historical places which are located in and around Mysore. This month, the Cultural Event was focused on an Indian Cultural theme, and we took our volunteers to an Indian Christian wedding.

Our idea of a typical Christian wedding revolves around frothy white dresses, tons of flowers, and cute flower girls. Subtle and elegant, Christian weddings are a vision in monochrome, but the scenario is a little different as far as Christian weddings in India are concerned. Although the basic essence of the rituals is the same as that of a traditional Christian wedding, a host of ethnic Indian rituals have impacted almost all communities throughout the country. They are a fascinating blend of the minimal Hollywood style Christian wedding we see in the movies with adherence to pre and post wedding rituals that are essentially very Indian. Right from the wedding attires, to the bridal jewelry, Indian Christian weddings are quite distinct from what we imagine.

In the morning, FSL-India’s coordinator and the volunteers started their travel from the meeting point to the place of the cultural event.  In the beginning, the Coordinator explained about the activities. Then, he took the 3 volunteers to attend the wedding. FSL-India’s Coordinator explained to them about the Indian wedding. After the visit, our FSL-India Coordinator and volunteers had lunch at the wedding hall and discussed about their experience in the host family and project.

Volunteers’ feedback:

• Very interesting to see an Indian Christian’s wedding
• Very nice – I go to church, I enjoyed the worship
• Amazing to see at the end of my project, my host brother’s wedding