Weddings Continued

While we are on the topic of weddings, check out this katha about modern day Sikh weddings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byxR_kkYmOo 

This one is different than the topic covered about laavan in my previous post. I would encourage you to watch it with your families as well because it definitely starts conversations. I watched it with my mum and we both definitely learned a lot and had some good laughs. Bhai sahib explains about where the background of our modern day wedding rituals come from, starting from when the couple meets. He will make you laugh within the first 10 minutes of the video by giving lots of examples to probe our thinking a little bit about why we do the traditions that we do.  I was very interested to hear about our traditions because I had never heard of some of them since I have only really attended the Anand Karaj itself and not everything beforehand. I like that Bhai sahib doesn't tell us what to do or not do, but tells us where things come from so we can choose informatively what traditions we practice at our weddings. So that you aren't thinking "such and such" ritual MUST be performed for luck. 

One of the more serious and important messages that Bhai sahib emphasizes is that should definitely be discussed is that as Sikhs we really do need to stop serving alcohol at any of our wedding events.  It really saddens me to see so many young people drinking and then teaching the generations to come to do the same. Alcoholism is a serious problem in our community and we need to think about our own roles in how we are encouraging the younger generations to drink through things like peer pressure at weddings/parties and punjabi songs. Let us be leaders in changing this part of our culture. Particularly if you are a man in your 20s/30s, the influence you have of being a positive role model to other young Sikhs by not drinking alcohol is huge. Please think about it!