Khara : a very typical punjabi wedding ritual

Since the very first episodes, I’ve been wanting to make a post on marriage ceremonies shown for Liaqat Bhai’s wedding and finally  I have found a book explaining it properly !

So, do you remember the scenes in the photos below ? It’s from epiosde 3.

khara 1

khara 2

khara 3

marriage procession

As it’s indicated below the images, the ceremony being held in the first 3 images is called Khara in Punjabi.

So what is Khara about ?

Before explaining it, I have to tell you a little bit about the traditional devide of Punjabi society. There are two main groups : those who own a land (Zameendar or Ziwindar) and those who don’t (Kammi).The second group does non agricultural jobs like making shoes and clothes, cutting hair, making earthen pots, cooking for grand occasions….The kammi will provide all these products and services to the Zameendaar and in return, they will recieve an amount of wheat grains, rice or other agricultural products.

Khara

   Khara in Punjabi is a kind of basket. Traditionaly, this ceremony is performed the day before the wedding at the bridegroom house. The to-be-husband is seated on the Khara and his sisters and sisters in law lay a piece of red fabric called chunni upon him ( I don’t know why ).

   Then, each member of the Kammi group from the village brings a product related to his profession and usefull to washing and dressing-up such as shoes, soap, water, hair oil, clothes and hair brush. In return, the family has to give them money. it’s a way of sharing your hapiness with every member of the society.

   In Punjabi culture, there are songs for every stage of life and so there are for the Khara too. Here is an example :                 Je tun betha Khare

Tera baap rupaye ware

Translation :

If you seat on the Khare

Your father will have to give away rupees

   Moreover, once the bridegroom is seated on the Khara, in order to finish the ceremony, his maternal uncle will have to give money to the Kammi. Some times, if the uncle plays hide and seek so he won’t have to pay, special songs are sung waiting for him to come ! Here is an example :

Phullan pari changer, ik Phul tori da

is wele de nal mama lodi da

Translation

A tray full of flowers, amonf them a courgette flower

We are looking for the uncle right now

   On the forth picture with the procession, you can see that the bidegroom is wearing a kind of “mask “. It’s called Sehra and I think it’s a way to hide his happiness so he won’t be affected by any Evil Eye !

A last image to sum up the concept of Khara !