Putu & Ayu`s Wedding

Couple of days ago there were Putu and Ayu´s wedding. The whole Wana Giri came together to prepare all diffrent offerings for the wedding cermony.
The ladies kept on explaining to me the diffrent offerings,names & what they were for. It is so complicated & so much to learn. There experienced fingers quickly twisted and turned the palm leaves into beautiful ornaments that later became grand standing offerings. Then diffrents cake and colorful rice were put into the small cups.
When the Balinese women prepare offerings there seems to be always one of the elderly that in charge. It is fascinating to watch how she kind knows everything and teach the younger women how they should do it. That way the knowledge through generations are passed on.

Just like in the West there are two ways to get married. You can do it the expensive way, Mamadik or the cheap way, Nyogoting or Mamaling.
The cheap way means that you will kidnap your future wife from her parents.
In the old days the kidnapping was a way for the young madly in love couple to get married without their parents permission. In the old days it was also more common that your parents decided who you would get married to. So, the rebellion and the dared once ran away from the parents decision and got married to their true lover. Once they came back the parents had to accept the groome even though the village would be gossiping for a while about the outrages way to get married.
Today the cheap way is more accepted in the Banjar as many couples has no finance to get married the expensive way. So today the young couple will go away for a couple of days.
The father and mother will put on their acting skills and pretend to be very worried about the young girl. Once the couple gets back it will not take long before the grrom is accepted in the family.

The expensive and more respected way is the Mamadik. To start with, the boy`s family send a delegation with greetings from the Banajar (community) to the girls home. The elderly talk together and finally it get decided that a wedding will happen.
The date of wedding is set by the so called Pedanda, who is the priest from the highest cast.

The actual cermony is though held by a so called Pemangku, which can be a priest from any cast.