Family members preparing the alter/throne area for the ceremony
Jennifer's family put a tent on top of their house to hold the ceremony. Here the pregnant lady, Shalnee, is walking up the stairs.
Jennifer and Annika
Shalnee being given garlands of flowers from family members
She sat on her throne and was presented with all of the alter items, one tray at a time. She put her hands on the item (mostly fruit or sweets) then touched her closed eyes, lips, then chest. Maybe this is to wish for good nutrition for the baby?
After all the offerings were blessed, Shalnee went downstairs to change her outfit. By this time it was 11:30a and the tent was very warm. We waited for an hour. During the wait people talked and Annika ate green mangoes straight off the tree.
These are some of Jennifer's family members, Sheela is on the right.
When Shalnee returned we could see why it took an hour for her to change clothes... now she was dripping in jewelry, her hair was redone and encased in jasmine flowers, and she was just glowing.
The next part of the ceremony involved the attendees. Every person who wanted to, including me, went up to Shalnee one by one and did the following:
Turmeric on each cheek, dot of red powder between the eyes, two bangles on each arm, scattering of jasmine blossoms over her head, pick up the bowl of red liquid and circle it in front of her three times, put the bowl down and put some of the liquid on your thumb, put the liquid in the middle of her forehead
Children got a bit bored so I gave Annika my camera to take pictures... I have LOTS of close-ups of the misc alter items but these are two children that caught her eye
It was a beautiful ceremony and we were happy to have been invited.
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