Saturday, January 9, 2016

The seventh season



There are seven seasons in Bangladesh. They are summer, rainy season, fall, late fall, winter and spring. That is six.

The seventh - my clear favorite  - is the wedding season. 
Timewise the wedding season coincides with winter from November to February. 
Not too cold, not too hot, just happiness and joy. And a lot of food.


In the evenings one can see  whole streets decorated with lights and flowers to mark the venue of a wedding celebration. Even a bad day feels better just by admiring all the beauty.


In wealthy Bangla circles one single wedding equals numerous parties for hundreds of people: the closest family, the not so close family, relatives, friends, colleagues. 



I have never before seen so many beautiful dresses, glittering jewelry, towering heels and perfect make-up at the same time and at the same place. 



Not to talk about the mountain of gifts and walls of flowers accompanied by music, dancing and food. 
So much delicious food. 



The happy couple is in the center of the events, sitting like smiling royalty on a scene. The guests take pictures of the bride and groom - and with the bride and the groom. For hours.


So far (hoping for more), we have been invited to two weddings here. 
We started softly with a reception at the first wedding and advanced to two parties with the second one. 
All events have names, traditions, coreography, colors and dress codes. 
As a newcomer I simply operate with the concept of a wedding.

The pictures in this posting are from my husband's colleague's son's wedding. 


Attending a whole wedding looks like a marathon. Maybe it's the idea. A preparation for the marathon of a marriage. 
Different parties, rituals and seremonies can take a week, plus a couple of weeks filled with after-parties, after-rituals and after-seremonies. 

Lavish weddings must be a blessing for the national economy, too. 
The wedding business feeds everybody from catering companies to beauty parlours, dress makers and florists. 
Plus fitness studios after the season.


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