Dowry: Not just gold jewelry, but dozens of new party/heavy dresses, appliances, furniture, gadgets like laptop and tv
Showing off the presents given to the bride for the guests to see
Showing off presents given to the groom for the guests to see
Showing off the dowry to guests, neighbours, random people you don’t know
Taking pictures/showing off while you put pose like you are pehnaofying jewelry to the bride after presenting it to her
The picture every relative gets taken after presenting the couple with paison wala lifafa or jewelry.
Add more please.
Yes, these still happen in the name of our traditions In rural areas, women volunteer to help show off each piece of dowry, walking around with them for everyone to see.
Have you seen it happen at a Pakistani wedding held outside of Pakistan or in bigger cities of Pakistan? What other things have you seen that you found to be totally cringe-worthy?
Re: Strange wedding traditions of Pakistani culture
When one of my friends was getting married she told me about a mounh dikhai rasam: when the bride and groom first sit together, a hand mirror is given to them and a dupatta is placed over head so they can see each other for the first time. I assume this used to happen ages ago in rural areas when most marriages were strictly arranged. She still wanted to do this rasam. Who knows what goes on under that dupatta! Imagine making goofy faces in the mirror lol
Re: Strange wedding traditions of Pakistani culture
i don't if other's do it, but keeping a log book of who gave how much. Someone would sit on the stage next to the bride and groom and write down who gave how much. Then this log book would be consulted when giving money at someone else's wedding. Like if someone gave rs1000, you return Rs 1500 at their wedding. Some books are kept for many many years
Re: Strange wedding traditions of Pakistani culture
@KS09 We do the same, just discreetly. After a wedding or a party, such as sweet 16, we make make a list of who gave what or how much. It helps when writing out thank you cards or gifting back the same amount, if not more... or even re-gifting gifts. Shh! I know we all do it!
Re: Strange wedding traditions of Pakistani culture
umm... I might get a lot of heat for this one:
during the rukhsati, when a Quran is held over a bride's head as she's walking out.
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who in the world came up with this?
Uff agreed! Bothers me to no end!!!! No offense if you've done this but come on people! What do you hope to achieve by hold the Quran over one's head?!?! It's Biddah so you're really getting bad deeds in place of blessings. I wish people would do their research before blindly following traditions. Again sorry if I offend you this is just a huge pet peeve of mine and it doesn't happen in my community or family so I really don't get the logic behind it
Re: Strange wedding traditions of Pakistani culture
I don’t see what’s so strange about this. I was looking forward to this bit from my wedding. Getting a formal picture of my dear and loved ones taken. I don’t live in Pakistan where majority of my family is, and unfortunately a lot of them are getting older. This way I have some way of remembering them, just like my parents have something to remember people at their wedding.
Again, maybe I’m looking at things in a different way, but I don’t see it as strange. It’s actually kind of cute. Yes it made a lot more sense back in the day, but now it’s just another cute photo op. In fact there is a very cute picture of muun dikhai at a recent wedding floating around instagram right now. Plus the bride gets more jewellery
Yup. still happens, and makes a lot of sense to write down what was given by who. Since there is no such thing is a wedding registry, it helps to write down stuff afterwards.
Re: Strange wedding traditions of Pakistani culture
I have seen people open their jewelry set box to have a picture taken with it while presenting it to the bride. I don’t know just the showing off part feels so awkward. As a bride, I was like, okayyy I believe you the jewelry box isn’t empty
In rural areas, women volunteer to help show off each piece of dowry, walking around with them for everyone to see.