Wedding Festivities in Bangladesh

Lsat night we went with Hasan's family to a Bangladesh wedding reception. Weddings are a really big deal here. This reception was held in a community center on the military base. The whole base was one of the nicest parts of Dhaka that we've seen. As we approached the site of the reception, the road was lined with lights. It reminded me of the Magical Night of Lights at Lake Lanier at Christmas time. The reception was held in a giant room that had seating for a few hundred people around round tables draped in white cloths-very similar to receptions in the US. There was a band, but they played instruments I didn't recognize and Bangla music. Nobody danced. I've asked Angela to post a photo for us. You'll notice that brides here wear red. In addition, they paint their hands and arms with the henna that we used for the Eid holiday. They wear lots of jewelry and make-up. Normally the groom wears traditional clothing, but this groom wore a suit. You'll see Hasan's parents, sister, Nadeem, and me also in the photo.
I felt like I had stepped into My Fair Lady or the Princess Diaries. The women here dress way up for weddings and other celebrations. I felt like I had my own beauty parlor. One of the servants came in to dress me in a sari that I borrowed from Hasan's sister, Someira. I have a new respect for women in saris! It made me think of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. First the servant made me wear a sort of plain skirt as an undergarment. It had a drawstring waist, and she pulled with all her might to make it as tight as possible. I could see where this was going, so I pushed out my stomach. She didn't fall for that. She gestured for me to suck my stomach in so that she could pull the skirt even tighter. It hurt!! By the end of the evening I had red marks all around my waist. We had barely gotten started. I also had to wear a tightly fitting cropped blouse that showed my stomach. Then she proceeded to wrap the sari material around me. This is a 12 foot rectangular piece of highly decorated fabric. She had to stuff the thick fabric into the waist band of the skirt. The skirt was already so tight I couldn't imagine anything else fitting, but the servant is an expert at sari wrapping. The women here put on their own saris, but believe me, it's too complicated for this American! Then we still weren't finished. I was quite fine with doing my own hair, but the servant insisted that I sit down for a full beauty treatment. She did my hair, Someira did my make-up, and then I put on fancy jewelry. The earrings wrap around your ears (more pain!).
At the reception, we first went on a large stage to greet the bride and groom where they were seated on a fancy sort of couch. You'll see it in the photo. Then we sat at a table where waiters served us dinner. I mean they literally brought each dish to us and put food onto our plates. They stood by us the whole meal to see when we needed more food. We had flavored rice with mutton, chicken, salad with no lettuce but carrots, tomatoes, and cucumber, a spicy yogurt drink, and a rice pudding for dessert (no wedding cakes here). After we ate, we went outside where there was a coffee station. Surprisingly, the people all just threw their cups onto the beautiful grass afterwards. There is a huge problem with pollution here. At the end of the night, we saw workers cleaning up everything. Then we went inside to watch the bride and groom eat their dinner. Finally we said good-bye and returned home. The entire wedding takes many days. We just participated in the reception at the end.
Marriages here are nearly always arranged by the families. In the past, women got married at a young age, even as young as nine years old only two generations ago. Now women wait until their 20's usually, and they have a little more say-so in selecting their husbands.
Hasan's family was very happy to share another Bangladesh tradition with us!