Exotic and eye catching colourful wedding dresses of Pakistan

Pakistani weddings are synonymous with women wearing vividly coloured, heavily ornamented bridal dresses that come in many colours. But these are mostly dominated by the red colour and its closely related sub colours. The dresses, the ornaments, mostly gold heavy and the makeup add to the radiant glow of the bride. The brides look like life sized dolls clad so beautifully and aesthetically that one cannot but continue to gaze and appreciate her attire for the day.

by Mud$i

Like the bride, the groom is more often than not is also dressed in traditional sherwani (a long close-collar coat) with a turban (the headdress) and looks not less than a prince of the olden days.

While the choices for the groom are limited, the bridal dresses for the brides and her friends have a wide range. These dresses are known as sharara, gharara, lehnga choli, mermaid cut lehnga, choridar pajama with angrakha. Besides these dresses are heavily embroidered. Some of these embroidery works are gotta, dabka, kora, beads, thread work, discs, resham embroidery (resham ka kaam) hat add to the elegance to traditional wedding dresses.

If you happen to be visiting Pakistan, insist your hosts to take you to a wedding – you will cherish the memories for a long time. Remember the weddings are followed by a very heavy and lavish dinner.

View some of the wedding dresses compositions herein under….

Double Shaadi by 1982omar

shyness by Aymen Jaffry

It's me by ☀ AAFTAB Sheikh ☀

Rasam by Anna Pirzada

Together by 1982omar

iraj manzoor by be_u_ti_ful_pari

Finally... by Asadfk

bride has a face :) by Aymen Jaffry

by Dr. Shahid-Burewala Trekkerz

Dulha's sherwani by Ehsaan Aly

All photographs above have been shared at Flickr

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook

Read More

Chitramas - the Kalash Winter Festival

Although Christmas has some resemblance with the word Chitramas, but the latter is celebrated in a very remote area of the world in the Chitral Valley of Pakistan. Chitramas or Chaumos is the winter festival of the Kafir Kalash people living in three valleys of Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur in the Chitral. The festival is presently being celebrated by these people of unknown origin, which will terminate on 22 December. Chitramas festival is considered the most important festivals of Kalash people from their spiritual point of view.

The Chitramas festivities are held to mark the end of the previous year’s harvest and fieldwork. Thereafter, the month of Chawmos Mastruk of the New Year dawns. The festival thus is a sort of saying goodbye to the previous year and welcoming the new year. The festivities include dancing, lively music and sacrificing goats. The Kalash slaughter their goats, mostly one goat per adult man or woman, on the concluding day of the festival. The festival also gains importance for the reason that the Kalash believe that god Balimain visits its subjects during the festival. Besides the many festivities, food sacrifices are offered at the clans' Jeshtak shrines, dedicated to the ancestors.

However, some men and women volunteer to seclude themselves from the others and remain confined in a cattle house for the duration of the week long festival. This tradition of seclusion is called Autik, which simply means “to get secluded.” These people eat the meat of the slaughtered goats, drink and pass time in merrymaking. While these people are celebrating in seclusion, care is taken that no outsiders sees them, lest they get polluted.

The Kalash children go up to the mountain, where they divide into boys and girls, and respectively make a big bonfire. After singing songs for some time the fire will be extinguished and then the two groups will compete with each other for the size of the smoke that rises up in the air. Then they all go down the mountain and return to the village singing " songs of Sarazari" carrying branches cut down from the mountain top. The elders will be waiting chanting songs in the village.

The festivities don’t get mar by the heavy snowfall at this time of the year in the Chitral valley. However, in case the sun shines, it adds colours and joy to the Kalash people. If you happen to be visiting Pakistan next year, do plan to visit Chitral and join the Kalash people in their festival of Chitramas – which at least by its name won’t let you feel missing the Christmas celebrations.

Related Reading: The Kalash Valley – where fairies dance and sing (Pakistanpaedia)
If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook
Follow @JalalsPages

Read More

Flying Swords and Khattak Dance

Traditional Khatak dancers (Photo: Jalalspages)

Khattak is a swift martial sword-dance of the Khattak tribe of Pashtuns in Khyber Pakhtunkwa province of northern Pakistan. Khattak is danced to fast music featuring the piper clarion and drums “dhols” beaten with sticks. Dozens of men dance together wielding swords or handkerchiefs, performing acrobatic feats. The Khattak dance has three main forms, Shahdola, Bhangrha and Bulbullah, and their many derivatives. The dance comprises 12 steps requiring great skill on the part of the dancers. The dancers alternate between performing solo and synchronizing with the rest of the troupe.

In the Bhangrah, performed in circle, every member swirls while carrying swords. In the Derabi, two youths, each carrying a sword and a handkerchief, start dancing in front of the man with surnai while the rest of the troupe members wait for their turn. In the Laila, a group of four performers holding two swords each perform stunts while moving in a circle.

Braghoni is the fastest and the most adventurous of all steps, which a single dancer performing with three swords. He swings two swords in the air while holding the third in his mouth. Bulbullah is the last of the twelve steps, staged without swords. The dancers sing a love song at a high pitch. At the end of the song, the drumbeat increases and the dance goes on.

Watch below a video that shows an exotique display of the Khattak Dance:

The dancers are dressed in traditional white coloured shalwar kameez (the loose trousers and shirt) with a cloth belt tied around the waist. The dancers also have rather long hair, which when swirling hang out beautifully outwards as do their loose shirts. It is fun watching these men performing this crafty dance with their heart and soul in it.

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook

Read More

Season of bands and marriages

Soon after the month of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, the season of bands and marriages ushers in with its pomp and show. You go anywhere, and would find long motorcades of “barat (the grooms journey to the bride’s place for the wedding ceremony)” on every road. The groom’s car is beautifully decorated with fresh flowers, garlands, and buntings. Some even put on glittering lights as well. Like everyone else, I was also been invited on a number of weddings this month. Two I have already attended and a few a are yet to be attended.

I went to Lahore on the weekend to attend the wedding of a friend’s daughter. Although, the a lot of ceremonies precede the actual wedding, like the dholki, mayoun, mehndi and nikkah ceremony, I could only make it to the wedding day due to the studies of my sons. All these ceremonies are very heavy in music. Mostly people hire local singers to their homes and even hotels to entertain the guests with wedding songs. Some even arrange military or local brass bands to be played on weddings. Although the trend of playing brass bands is on the decline in the cities, the tradition still goes on in small towns and villages, where musical groups are not that popular. In villages, the barat procession Is generally led by the local brass bands, dressed like military bands.

The wedding was arranged in one of the leading hotels of Lahore, which can accommodate almost half a dozen of such functions simultaneously. And obviously this calls for lot of rush, hundreds of cars to be accommodated in the limited parking lot of the hotel. It took me a while for my sons to locate a parking for our car. It took quite a while and when we entered the arena, the food had already been served and people were busy in their dinner. My friend was very pleased on our arrival and straightaway took me to the centre stage to introduce me to the groom and beside pleasantries, we had a photo session. I had a number of old friends attending the marriage, so we all got together in a corner, had food and a good gossip. Then it was time for wedding rituals. One of the rituals is that the sisters and cousins of the bride take off one of the shoe of the groom and ask for some handsome money in return. They ask a lot of money and a hearty debate goes on between from sisters and cousins from both sides amid large uproar and NOs when a smaller amount is presented. After a lot of “Hulla Gulla”, both parties finally settle for an agreed sum in return of the groom’s shoe. I wish Cinderella could see this ritual. This is the last ritual after which the bride walks out with the groom to her new home amid tears and wishes from everyone.

For the second wedding, that of a son of a friend of mine, I had to rush back to Islamabad from Lahore and I barely made it to the venue. All wedding have a similar pattern in cities, while in villages, there are minor differences owing to local customs and traditions. I will write more about the various rituals some other day.

Related Link: Customs and traditions of Pakistan

Read More