Games at wedding have the histories long back in ancient times. Clearly, in older times, arrange marriage was the only traditional custom thought to be good for man and woman. According to arrange marriages, girls and boys didn’t have the right to talk to one another before marriage. The traditionalism use to keep them strangers to one another until they get married.

These strange feelings gave way to different games which allow the bride and groom to break the ice between them. The level of comfort is brought between them through playing games and making them aware of each other’s family members and choices. The following games are as follow:

Playing mischievous with shoes:

• Shoes have always been a perky and funny way to play games with the groom, especially in North India. The bride’s sisters and friends are always ready to pull the leg of the groom. As the groom steps into the mandap, for wedding pujas and rituals, he has to remove his shoes by the namesake of holy place and in respect of gods and goddesses.

• This is the time when the bride’s sisters and friends or more precisely groom’s sisters-in-law takes the advantage of hiding the shoes of the groom. The groom has to pay a handsome amount of money to get back the hidden shoes. In fact, the groom is bound to pays that amount which the sister-in-law demands.

• The fun part is the groom’s brothers or more precisely the bride’s brothers-in-law and friends try to bring back the shoes to the groom through tricking the girls. This prevents the girls from demanding anything from the groom. This is fun, like a cat and mouse game. The relatives and family members of both the families enjoy the funny game as the young generations keep on chasing one another. It absolutely gels the bride and groom up.

• The game is still a big trend in modern generation and grooms even bring on thousands of cash, gold ear rings, bangles and even heavy gifts to make their sisters-in-law happy enough. Sometimes, to make the game much more fun, the bride’s brothers-in-law come with extra planning to brew the game up.

A chance to let the bride and groom go cozy:

• South Indians are always naughty and passionate with their wedding games. No wonder, they are passionate enough to break the ice too fast by jumping into the track straight. South Indian games include the groom biting a part of clove or betel leaf and then cajoling the bride to bite off the leftover part. The game is quite embarrassing for a newly wedded wife as she has to do it in front of the whole wedding party.

• The blushing new wife is given a hard time by the groom as, sometimes, he gets naughty. The groom keeps on shoving her away in biting off the clove or betel leaf part unless she gives a kiss to the groom; especially smooch one. This game provokes both the bride and the groom to ignite the fire within them for the upcoming cozy night.

Tricking out the names in hands:

• In Hindu marriages, girls don on mehendi in their hands as it is considered very auspicious for a bride. The Mehendi is very serene for a would-be-wife; one of the well-known North Indian game, goes along with hennaed hands of girls. The groom name’s first alphabet is put on the bride’s hand in minuscule manner amidst all the heavy designs and dark colors.

• The groom is asked to find the name in the hands and on finding is said to gift her something as a shagun. The significance of the game is the touching portion; just to find the name thoroughly in the midst of the designs he has to touch the hands of the bride. This gives both of them a sense of intimacy.

The one who rules the relationship

One of the well known Indian wedding games include the “finding the ring”. The game is mainly the fun part of the relationship and quite popular in North India. The result of the game declares the person who is going to rule over the family and home. The game is distributed in two exclusive portions:

• The first part goes something like this; the groom, and the bride is said to put their rings in a clear pot of water. The water is then allowed to churn thoroughly; as the churning is done everyone looks for the results. It is made sure that the pot is high-end and large enough for the rings to get churned within the water.

• If the bride’s ring touches the bottom of the pot first, then she is presumed to be ruling the house, whereas if it’s the other way round then the groom is going to rule. The fun part is that the family relatives keep on teasing the newly wedded bride and groom over the ruling the house. It helps the newly wedded couple co-ordinate in a faster rate.

• The second part of the game goes something like this; pots full of milk, designed by rose petals are placed in front of the couple. A ring in dropped in the pot and slightly churned, such that no one knows the position of the ring. The bride and groom are then told to search the rings out of the pot; the one who gets hold of the ring first is declared the ruler.

• Three chances are given to the couple; and the one who finds the ring two times win. The fun part is that the bride, and the groom get the chance to touch one another’s hand by the name of searching the ring and the relatives get to enjoy the moment by the name of the ring.

Each game has its way to let the couples get closer to each other, through games. The warmth and love reflecting through these games give them the chance to feel one another. The games have their ancient touch and even present day modern Hindu weddings cannot deny the touch of mischief and fun in them.

Raja Kumar