Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to photograph a beautiful family event.  This family was celebrating two very exciting milestones for two of the girls in the family with traditional Nepali ceremonies.  The first was Avani’s Gunyo Cholo Ceremony.  The word “Gunyo” means Sari and “Cholo” means blouse.  This ritual signifies a girl growing up and during this ceremony, Avani’s Mother adorned her with jewelry and her Grandmothers draped a shawl around her to signify protection from evil.

The second ceremony was Sophia’s Pasni.  This is the celebration of the first time a baby is fed rice and grains.  As tradition, Sophia was held by her paternal Aunt during this ceremony while family and friends fed her.

Now that you have the background, I can tell you what I loved about photographing this event.  The room was bursting with love (which you know makes this girl so happy).  Not only were the ceremonies beautiful for the soul, but everyone there was so excited to celebrate these milestones with their family members.  Later in the day, Avani and her sister Divya performed dances that they had practiced for the occasion.  These girls were so talented, it was amazing.  I must say, my favorite part of the day was the surprise dance Avani & Divya’s Mother performed as a surprise.  She was beaming with love and pride for her daughters during her entire performance and even got this postpartum hormonal Mama choked up ;)  Come see more from their day..