Wedding traditions with the canopy

A canopy creates a small house in the middle of any open space. Under it the couple stand or sit, and the space beneath becomes their home. It may be of cloth, flowers, wood or a prayer shawl, and it is one of the strongest wedding images in the world.

The chuppah and the mandap

The Jewish chuppah is a cloth held on four poles, open on all sides like Abraham's tent, to show that the home welcomes guests. Some use a prayer shawl, a tallit. The Hindu mandap is a raised canopy with four pillars, decorated with flowers and cloth, around which the rites take place. In the Persian aghd, a cloth is held over the couple by unmarried women while two sugar cones are ground above.

Tents and bowers

In the Gulf and North Africa a grand tent houses hundreds of guests. In Sri Lanka the poruwa is a decorated platform. In Africa and the Americas, arbours and cloths are common, and in Western garden weddings an arch of flowers stands in for the same idea.