Traditions from Sri Lanka Highlight Ceremony in NYC
By Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway
Rachel Leanza and Sanith Wijesinghe were married in a unique wedding ceremony Oak Ridge House at Forest Park, Queens June 9. We just got photos so we are sharing them now.
The bride is American and groom comes from Sri Lanka. She is a teacher and singer and her entire family is musical. One of her sisters and cousins sang at the wedding and the bride serenaded the groom at the reception.
Turns out his family is musical too - his Mom and dad surprised everyone by singing a Sri Lankan wedding song as a humorous video played!
In the ceremony, we included several special blessings from the Sri Lankan tradition. The family Candle lighting ceremony -- in which parents and bride and groom light oil candles on a tall, temple-size brass lamp to symbolize the joining of families on the wedding day. His Mom made sure those candles got lit!
We also did the famous Sri Lankan string ceremony. For this I had an assist from the grooms Dad and Sister.
In this ritual, the bride and grooms pinkies are tied together with blessed white thread to symbolize the bond of unity. Then water is poured over their fingers and is collected in a special bowl. This captures the blessings of all the Gods.
So the groom's dad tied the white string is tied by Grooms father to join the bride and grooms pinkie fingers. His right; her left. The Groom's father then recites a prayer in Pali (native language) as I poured blessed water over their fingers and the grooms sister collected it as it fell.
The came the tricky part, Rachel and Sanith had to slip out of the string that had them bound together without breaking it or untying the knot. This symbolized a bond that will last for ever, a bond that cannot be broken!
They did it!
Oak Ridge House is an amazing old mansion in Forest Park, which is a huge, sprawling part of the NYC Parks Department. Very cool place and not too well known as a wedding venue. The ceremony was outdoors and the food was catered in from their favorite Sri Lankan restaurant.
Digg It!, 
Reddit or 
Bookmark it!
