Could you imagine saving up your whole life for a single celebration? This is a common tradition in India when it comes to weddings. Indian weddings, aside from celebrating the union between two individuals, are an occasion to show off the family’s wealth and prosperity. The biggest status symbol seen at these events is gold.
Indian families spend their lives saving and investing in gold for the weddings of their children and grandchildren. This is especially true for daughters. Families contribute money and gold to the wedding itself, but they also gift the bride with gold for her to wear and keep as security.
The tradition of gifting gold stems back to when property laws favored men. Sons would receive the family’s land, home, and other property. If families still had wealth to share with their daughters, it would be in the form of gold. Times have changed, but the tradition of giving gold to daughters remains to this day.
Over the years, gold has intertwined with Indian culture. Many families continuously invest in gold as they’re able to save money, acquiring the precious metal over generations and passing it down to younger relatives. Indians buy gold for births, birthdays, and a variety of other holidays and special occasions. But families spend the most on weddings.
Soon after female children are born, Indian parents begin saving for her “stridhan.” This is a gift of gold to a bride, which becomes exclusively her property. She gets to decide how this gold is used by the family, or she can consider it an insurance policy against difficult times.
The bride wears much of this gifted gold during the wedding ceremony, which is symbolic of the family’s status. In fact, about 30 to 50 percent of wedding expenses go toward gold jewelry. Even if a family doesn’t have much money to spend on gold, the bride may still be seen wearing a few simple pieces of jewelry such as a gold nose ring.
It’s not uncommon for Indian weddings to last for three days and have several thousands of guests in attendance. The bride wears an elaborate sari, sometimes featuring thread made of real gold. And of course, she’s also adorned with gold jewelry. This tradition has made India the second largest consumer of gold in the world, buying between 800 and 1,000 tons each year. About 60 percent of this gold is given for weddings.
After the wedding is over, Indian women often wear their gold jewelry on a daily basis. It’s a way to keep their wealth close. And now you can take part in the tradition of wearing your wealth with the Smooth 1 oz Gold Bullion Bracelet. The gold used to make this bracelet is the same weight and quality as you would find in a coin or round, but instead shaped to be worn.
If you could choose another way to wear or display your gold, how would you do it?
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