Wedding traditions of South Asia
Saptapadi and the sacred fire, mehndi and haldi, baraat and nikah: the longest, loudest weddings anywhere. 119 traditions on EveryShaadi so far.
Countries
๐ฆ๐ซ Afghanistan 7๐ง๐ฉ Bangladesh 12๐ง๐น Bhutan 4๐ฎ๐ณ India 123๐ฒ๐ป Maldives 1๐ณ๐ต Nepal 22๐ต๐ฐ Pakistan 28๐ฑ๐ฐ Sri Lanka 9
Cities and towns
On the calendar
Dev Uthani EkadashiHindu winter shaadi season (Dev Uthani to Kharmas)Magh and Phalgun wedding windowHindu spring wedding window (April to June)Akshaya TritiyaVasant Panchami as a wedding dateBhadli NavamiShubh Vivah muhuratShawwal, the month after RamadanThe winter wedding season of South AsiaMehr, the Persian autumn of weddingsRamadan
๐ฎ๐ณ IndiaChild marriage in India
A contested practice where minors marry, defined by law as unions involving a bride under 18.Modern ยท Engagement and betrothal
๐ฎ๐ณ Kinnaur, IndiaPolyandry in India
A practice where a woman has multiple husbands at the same time, found in specific Indian communities.Vow ยท Engagement and betrothal
๐ฎ๐ณ India and 1 moreSame-sex marriage in the British Indian Ocean Territory
Legal recognition of same-sex unions for military personnel stationed on Diego Garcia since 2014.Modern ยท The ceremony
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Polyandry in India: Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain, source
- Child marriage in India: Baijayant, CC BY-SA 4.0, source