Punjabi culture does not merely symbolize the ancient Sikh legacy. The industrious Punjabis like to have a bit of fun at the end of a hard day’s work and thus their culture abounds in lively music and colorful dances. Jaago, a dance that is performed to celebrate the wedding festivities deserves special mention.
The term ‘Jaago’ in Hindi literally means to ‘wake up’. Like its connotation, this popular dance tends to arouse the members of a household where a marriage is in progress. The young and frivolous girls of the family, where is a wedding is about to take place dance gaily through the village streets carrying a pot of jaggery decorated with illuminated candles and loudly chant the jaago tunes.
The social verses are almost usually aimed at elders and have a slight teasing and witty tone. The night before the consumption of the nuptial vows, the female relatives and friends of the bridegroom prepare a ‘Jaago’ on the balconies on a myriad of surfaces. Lamps are made out of dough consisting of wheat flour in the pattern of stars. They are then filled with ghee or oil and the cotton wicks are lit. This model is then placed on the head of the of groom's mothers' brothers' wife who leads the bevy of women folk who gaily sing, dance and frolic about the groom’s village. They visit the groom’s neighbors and accept humble gifts of food, grain and ghee for the lamps as blessings for the couple and spend nights rejoicing in gaiety and merriment.
Jaago is a beautiful Punjabi cultural celebration to ensure conjugal bliss.
