ਸੇਹਰਾ

What does sehra mean in Punjabi? A sehra (ਸੇਹਰਾ) is the decorative veil of flowers or beads that hangs from a groom's turban over his forehead and face at a Punjabi wedding. It is tied on at the groom's home just before the baraat sets off, in the short ceremony called sehra bandi.

What does sehra mean in Punjabi?

A sehra is a forehead garland worn by the bridegroom during weddings in the Indian subcontinent. It is a decorative groom's veil, made either out of flowers or out of beads, and it is tied to the groom's turban or pagdi so that the strings hang down in front of his face. In Punjab the groom wears it from the moment he leaves home until the wedding ceremony, and in photographs of a Punjabi baraat the sehra is often the first thing that marks the man at the centre as the groom.

What is sehra bandi?

Sehra bandi is the act of tying the sehra around the groom's head right before he leaves for the bride's house. In the Punjabi wedding account, once the groom has dressed in his wedding clothes, his sister ties the sehra on his head, and everyone who witnesses the sehrabandi then gives gifts and cash to the groom as a token of good luck. Another Punjabi wedding guide describes the turban being tied by an elder male relative with the floral sehra placed on it, a ritual that signifies the groom's readiness to step into married life. Who does the tying varies by family, but the meaning is the same: the boy of the house is now dressed as a groom.

Where does the word sehra come from?

The word sehra is derived from the Sanskrit word Shirshahara, meaning a garland for decorating the head, a derivation recorded in the Hindi Sabdasagara dictionary. The same source notes that the word sehra is mentioned in the Braj poetry of the Bhakti saint Surdas. So the little veil of flowers carries an old name: a head garland, exactly what it still is at a Punjabi wedding today.