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New Delhi bracing for a frenzy of weddings today

"The present confluence of planets is creating positive energy, which is important for any endeavor to turn out well, and a couple who marries [today] will have good progeny."

Ashok Kumar Joshi, astrologer

With astrologers calling Nov. 27 the luckiest day for couples to wed, the Indian capital was bracing for thousands of weddings and monster traffic jams today.

Many Indians, who are among the world's most superstitious people, set great store by astrology in fixing the time of important events.

"When Jupiter and Venus are in a good position, not too near the sun, it's very beneficial for a happy marriage," astrologer Ashok Kumar Joshi told reporters.

"The present confluence of planets is creating positive energy, which is important for any endeavor to turn out well, and a couple who marries [today] will have good progeny."

Local newspapers have estimated that more than 15,000 weddings may take place today.

They have gloomily predicted traffic will crawl at speeds of 5kph where popular marriage venues are located.

"It will be chaos in some parts," traffic policeman Sanjay Bhatia told reporters.

Wedding season kicked into high gear Wednesday, one of the first astrologically lucky days of the wedding season.

The Hindustan Times newspaper declared on Thursday that the season of the "wheel-stopping marriages" is officially under way.

With many North Indian Hindu marriage ceremonies involving elaborate traditions that take place in the street, the preoccupation with traffic is not unfounded.

In a common custom, members of the groom's party sing and dance their way through the streets as they accompany the prospective husband, who rides a white horse to the wedding.

The joyous procession that includes a loud marching band is enjoyed by all except drivers stuck behind it.

Another astrologer said couples who marry today will be with each other through seven lifetimes and have an argument-free wedded life.

"On this day, couples who get married will stay together for saat janams [seven births] and both will be equal partners," said Hindu scholar Ravindra Nagar, who is affiliated with a prominent Hindu temple in New Delhi.

"Nobody will dominate the other," he told the Times of India.

Hindus believe that existence is a cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Astrology has been practiced in India for thousands of years as part of a widely held belief system that the future can be divined from planets' movements in relation to the stars.

It is not unusual for a lovestruck pair to be forced to part if an astrologer tells their parents that the couple's planets are out of alignment, and it is the astrologer who often picks the wedding date as well.

There are about 10 lucky days from late this month until early next month, according to astrologer Arun Bansal, and then a lull until Jan. 19, which is why so many weddings are taking place at the moment.

Bansal took a more mundane view of the luckiness of getting married today.

"It has many positive omens but there are other good days also," he said.

"The other plus point is, it's a Sunday when people don't work, so weddings will be well-attended, which is very import-ant," said Bansal, president of the All India Federation of Astrologers' Societies.
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