Dear friend in the city,
Did you go to any weddings last winter? We had a big one in our village last night. The food was great, and we got to stay up very late. But my favorite part is always sneaking into the room to look at the bride before she goes out to the mandap.
If you have never been to a wedding here, there is something very special you will notice.
My mother and the older aunties usually wear a pinch of red sindoor every day. But for the bride, it is completely different. The women use a special powder called Bhakhra Sindoor. It is not red, but bright orange! And they don’t just put a little bit in her hair. They draw a thick, bright orange line starting all the way from the very tip of her nose, straight up across her forehead, and into the middle of her hair.
I was curious why it had to be orange and so long. I asked my Dadi (grandmother) while she was sitting in the first row of the wedding . She just laughed at me and said, "Chalta aa raha hai, bitiya. Humein kaa pta" (It has just been going on forever. What do we know?).
But later, my older cousin told me the real reasons. She said the bright orange color is like the rising sun. It means the bride is bringing a completely new, bright light into her new life.
And the long line is not just for dressing up. Drawing it all the way down to the nose is an old prayer. It is a way of wishing that her new husband will have a very long life and be very successful in whatever work he does. My cousin even told me a story about Goddess Parvati—that when she defeated a giant demon to protect everyone, her sindoor spread all the way down to her nose. So, the women wear it this way to honor her strength, too.
They only wear it like this on very special occasions. Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride wore orange instead of red?
Khushi, Class 6th
