I just came back from spending several days in Oklahoma City, where one of my best friends got married over the weekend. She has been a beautiful, strong, and noble force in my life, and I am very thankful she has found the right person to share her life with. It was beautiful to witness their union in a traditional Muslim Indian ceremony, the way she had always wanted it to be.
Traditions can be a tricky subject, as ethical issues can be overlooked for the sake of doing what society deems as right, but if practiced mindfully, traditions can have an incredibly grounding effect, as it was the case for this wedding. There is something humbling and fulfilling about the slow finessing of ceremonial rituals and crafts, the coming together of family and friends, and the acknowledgement that there is something greater than our individual selves. This inspired me to research different wedding traditions, as I am working on a line of wedding dresses for this spring. I learned that in many Eastern cultures, the bride wears red, as a sign of good luck, auspiciousness, or sexual awakening. In traditional Arab, Turkish, Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish weddings, the bride’s hands and feet are decorated with henna in intricate patterns, also a sign of good luck and auspiciousness.
Bride in traditional Chinese wedding attire
Birdes at a mass Muslim wedding ceremony
Traditional henna decorations
Native American weddings are hard to categorize as they differ greatly from tribe to tribe. In Northern California traditions, the groom weaves the bride’s gown in symbolic colors: white for the east, blue for the south, yellow for the west, and black for the north. Jewelry is worn to prevent hunger and poverty.
Wishram Bride
In Meso American traditions, the bride wears a heavily embroidered huipil and a natural white cotton skirt, the groom wears an embroidered outfit as well. Family and friends wear simple natural white cotton outfits, and no shoes are worn to absorb the spiritual energy created by the ceremony.
Mayan Brides
The one thing in common that all these wedding traditions have is that they are performed to wish newlywed couples protection, health, auspiciousness, and abundance. Which is what I wish to my newlywed friend, and what I will be thinking of everytime I sit down to make a wedding dress.
This is a salt flat at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America…
Mesquite Sand Dunes…
This is what they call Artist Palette, where minerals show off their myriad of colors…
