I know an Indian and I would like to know a little bit more about their customs and other things

4 Major Traditional Rituals

Traveling around the world, it is a constant truth that when you enter a country, you follow the customs. Indians have 4 major traditional ceremonies which are birth, funeral, marriage and Puja ceremonies. In addition, when traveling in India, you must know the 10 special customs and 6 taboos in India, to ensure that you have fun and a safe journey.

Birth

Traditionally in India there is a strong preference for sons over daughters, because when a daughter gets married, her parents have to prepare a rich dowry, without which the daughter can't get married. And this is really a huge burden for poor families.

Indians will clap their hands if a daughter is born to them, which means they come empty-handed. But if the birth is a son, it is very different, the family will immediately celebrate by banging a gong, indicating that the son's future wife, can bring a loud dowry.

The way Indians celebrate the birth and safe growth of a child is by going to a temple to perform a puja, singing prayers and then having a meal with friends and family.

After a child is born in India, the parents have a fortune teller and the child's name is often taken from a hero or a god. The child's birth name is especially important, as it can determine the child's future marriage partner.

Funerals

Hindus are cremated at the river altar when they die. When a Hindu dies, the family wraps the body in a yellow or white silk cloth and places it on two bamboo stretchers and carries it in a procession to the river altar cremation site.

Traditionally, the task of carrying the dead to the crematorium was supposed to be taken up by the family, but nowadays most people leave it to specialists. In India, those who specialize in funeral matters are considered untouchables of the lowest caste status.

Generally burial ceremonies are very simple, but wealthier families may have musicians playing in front of them in a vast procession. Before the cremation, the eldest son of the deceased must walk around the body three times with an oil lamp in his hand, and when the cremation woodpile is lit, the eldest son of the deceased must shave his hair, leaving only a small tuft at the back of his head, and then go to the river to bathe and purify himself. At the end of the cremation, the ashes of the deceased are swept into the river, representing that the soul has been freed from the body and liberated.

Weddings

The Indian wedding is a representation of social status and the most important ceremony in a lifetime. When young Indians reach marriageable age, they are asked by their parents to find a match of the same social class, language, region, and background, as well as an astrological sign that can be compatible.

Indian wedding ceremony is quite complicated, before the marriage, both parents will act as a matchmaker through the priest to discuss the dowry matters, the woman must agree to the amount of dowry proposed by the man and woman before the two sides to choose the auspicious date, begin to prepare for the wedding. The day before the wedding, the bride must follow the traditional make-up style, start anointing, bathing, dressing, combing hair, eyeliner, lipstick, and painted red on the feet, red tikka on the forehead, black moles on the chin, and then plant dyes on the hands and feet to decorate the hanas, and then spritzed with perfume, jewelry and hair accessories, and finally blackened teeth, betel nut chewing, and lipstick, and then considered the completion of the work.

On the day of the wedding, the groom rode a white horse to the bride's home. By this time, the woman's home has set up a fire altar, the two sides of the family and friends in the priest recited the auspicious words, around the fire altar to pray. After that, the bride surrounded by female companions to the front of the fire altar, by the priest will be the bride's sari and the groom's scarf tied together, on behalf of a long and lasting marriage.

The dinner of an Indian wedding is held at the bride's home, where the couple sits in the wedding feast to receive blessings from friends and relatives. The groom spends the night at the bride's house on the evening of the wedding day, before taking her home the following day.

Puja

Puja is a Hindu ritual of worship to a god, which must be performed by a priest. During the ceremony devotees decorate the idol and carry it out of the temple in a procession to celebrate and make offerings of flowers, coconuts, tika powder ...... and other offerings. The ceremony ends with the priest performing 'arati' in front of the idol, holding an oil lamp.

During the arati, the devotee gently covers the lamp in the priest's hand with his hand and then touches it to his own eyes to signify acceptance of the power given by the deity.

Often after the Puja ceremony, devotees are given a share of some ritualized flowers, tikka powder or water called 'Prasada'. That is why in India, whenever you see Indians coming out of a temple to worship, they almost always have red or white powder smeared on their foreheads.

Traditional Dress

In India, the religion, race, class, region, etc. of the local people can be seen by the different dresses and costumes.

Male Wrapped Turban

Most Indian men are wrapped in a turban, which is called (Turban). There are various methods of wrapping the turban, among which the Sikh male turban, has a specific style.

Traditionally, Sikhs are required to grow their hair and beard and wear a turban from childhood to adulthood. Children's turbans are simple and are tied with a black cloth in the shape of a bun. Adult turban style is more complex, first of all must be tied with a black elastic band of long hair into a bun, and then a length of about 3 meters of cloth, wrapped into a turban, the style of the two sides of the opposite into a regular shape. Sikhs have a wide range of colors in their turbans, some even match the color of their clothes.

Most Indian men wear a loose-fitting, stand-up collar tunic with narrow-legged pants (Dhoti), and men in Rajasthan, the pants are wrapped in a piece of white cloth, and the turban on the head is very varied and colorful.

Women Wear Sari

The traditional dress of Indian women is the sari, a piece of fabric 15 yards long or more, which is wrapped around the body in a shawl. Indian women are good at the use of tie, around, tied, wrapped, wrapped, draped ... Indian women are good at using the techniques of tying, tying, wrapping, wrapping, draping, etc. to make different variations of the sari on the body.

Rajasthani women's sarees are shorter and are only draped over the head, but they are colorful and have gold and silver embroidered borders. The blouse of Rajasthani women is somewhat like a Chinese phoenix dress without a collar, and the bottom is a floor-length skirt with piping.

Sari Wearing Style

The traditional dress of Indian women is wrapped in a piece of cloth up to 3 meters long, which is called a sari. Indian sari wear way varies a lot, different races, regions, beliefs, there will be many different colors, texture and wear wrapped way. When Indian women wear a sari, the top is a short-sleeved, navel-exposing bodice (Choli), and the bottom is a floor-length straight petticoat (Ghagra).

The basic way of wearing a sari can be divided into the following steps:

1. First, pull the left end of the sari cloth and tuck it into the right side of the petticoat.

2. Wrap the sari around the bottom from right to left, about three or four times.

3. Fold the sari fabric in four at the right front and tuck it into the petticoat head.

4. Then take the remaining fabric and wrap it around the right armpit from the left back and drape it over the left shoulder.

5. Finally, drape the sari directly over the shoulders or over the head.

Muslim Dress

Muslims in India, both men and women, wear wide robes in simple colors. Muslim men wear small round hats on their heads, and women wrap their hair in a headscarf. In the more conservative Islamic areas, women still cover their faces with muslin. Jain women, all white, some wear white masks, to avoid killing airborne creatures. Jain male monks, on the other hand, wear no clothing on their bodies.

Music and Dance

In India, where religion is the main norm of daily life, music and dance, which have arisen with the various religious festivals and folk rituals, are one of the most common art forms.

The Indian music tradition comes from the ancient Sama Vedas, the Hindustan system and the Karnatak system. The former was popular in northern India, and its style was influenced by Central Asia and Persia; the latter was circulated in the South Indian region, and its style remained unchanged.

Indian traditional music

North Indian classical music has various forms, the most commonly played is Khyal (Khyal), a blend of rigorous and romantic forms of music, easier for people to accept. The Karnataka music of South India is more complex and regular, unlike the popular improvisation of North Indian music, which uses only special techniques or instruments to vary the original structure.

The representative stringed instrument of South Indian music is the Veena, while the most famous stringed instrument of North Indian music is the Sitar. There is a wide variety of percussion instruments, of which two single sided drums are used in North India and one double sided drum is used in South India. For song accompaniment, the most unusual is a box-shaped instrument that is played with the left hand pushing the caress and the right hand pressing the keyboard, which has a special sound quality.

Indian Classical Dance

Indian Classical Dance, mainly Kathak, Brahmaputra (Bharatanatyam), Manipuri, Kathakali and other four major genres, in addition to Odissi, Kuchipudi ... And so on.

The Kathak dance is popular in Jaipur and Lucknow in northern India, and was a court dance during the Mughal Empire. The dancers wear a large string of bells around their ankles and dance on their toes in a fast, rotating manner during the performance. The main feature of the dance is the skillful footwork and the control of postural balance.

The Brahmaputra dance is prevalent in the Tamil Nadu region and has the longest history. Performed by women, this dance is characterized by the use of balance and stability in the waist and knees, allowing the hands to move freely around the body.

The Manipuri dance is performed in the Manipur region of northeastern India and is characterized by gentle and continuous movements. This dance is performed to express reverence for Lord Vishnu. Vishnu is the most common theme in the Indian classical dance drama, Kathakali dance is the dance of the Kerala region of South India, the dancers are all male, face covered with heavy oil paint, wearing loose skirts, headdresses; dance emphasizes the flow of the eyes, the expression is very rich. Indian music and dance, in addition to the classical genre, there are popular in the mountains of India's hunting dance, around the annual festival dance, folk dance and street performers improvisational performance, are worth watching.