Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
INDIA, December 23, 2009: (by Nagesh Rao) “How is the US different from India?” Let us compare an American Christian wedding with an Indian Hindu wedding.
If you have 200 or more guests, it is a big wedding in the US (of course, everyone has to RSVP if they wish to attend). In India, a wedding can have anywhere from 200 to 2,000 guests, because the wedding invitation is addressed to family and friends and, on the wedding day, if friends wish to join the festivity that is perfectly okay. So, no one is really sure how many people will show up. And everyone who attends will partake in the wedding meal! If the US wedding is for a few hours, our Indian wedding can go on for days.
In the US the focus is primarily on the wedding couple. In India, the wedding couple is important, but only to very close family and friends. In some ways, the focus is on the community reconnecting with family and friends, meeting new people and celebrating the young couple. There is no program, no guide and no instructions on what one is supposed to do in an Indian Hindu wedding.
Indians are often sinuous, indirect and implicit in their ways of life, and that is evident in the rich subtleties of the Hindu marriage traditions.