Delhi to lose some wedding sheen this year as lack of auspicious dates pushes season to 2019

A lack of sufficient ‘auspicious’ dates in November and December has pushed the city’s wedding season to the start of next year, according to astrologers, making it a lean time for banquet halls, caterers, wedding planners and fashion designers who do their best business at the year-end.

Most propitious dates have shifted to January and February due to a change in planetary positions, said Jaigovind Shastri, a Delhi-based astrologer. He said that such a planetary placement has occurred after 20 years.

“As per the Hindu calendar, wedding cannot happen before November 19. Even after that, there are just seven dates available — November 23, 24, 25,26 and December 11, 12 and 13,” he said.

The monstrous traffic snarls that are common in the capital during the last two months of the year, when marriage processions and wedding revellers take over the streets of the city, may get postponed too, but Delhi traffic police aren’t taking anything for granted.

“We have not started receiving permission requests yet, so we cannot say for sure if the wedding season has been shifted to January,” said a senior traffic police official.

Caterers, wedding planners and fashion designers who prepare bridal trousseaus are still waiting for business.

When HT checked with 15 popular wedding venues, most claimed that they were yet to receive bookings for most dates in November and December. Caretakers said these venues usually get booked at least a year ahead of the wedding season.

Similar was the situation at several private banquet halls in south and north Delhi.

“It is the same at all banquets halls in city. They are just booked for seven or eight days,” Sanjeev Verma, owner of Celebrations Banquet Hall at north Delhi’s Wazirpur and B2 Party Palace at Lawrence Road (near Britannia Chowk) said.

He said that during the few available auspicious dates, the city is likely come to a “standstill”.

At the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) wedding halls, dates between November 1 and 18 were mostly available at all the 13 venues. Though halls were booked on November 19, but after that date until December 10, most venues were available.

Rohit Kumar of Jai Ganpati Caterers and Tent House, which provides catering services in nine out the 13 NDMC halls, said that the “lack of auspicious dates” this year has reduced his earning down to one-third of the business he does every year .

“Contrary to the last year, when I had back-to-back bookings for at least 20 days in November, this year, I have got bookings for just four days. Since astrologically there are only seven to eight auspicious wedding dates, people who are not getting suitable venues are mostly shifting their wedding dates to January end, February and March,” said Kumar.

Deepa Sondhi, a designer from Punjabi Bagh in west Delhi, said people were visiting her store for the festive season instead of shopping for weddings. “Except for four or five clients who came to get clothes designed for their weddings, I didn’t get many bookings for November and December,” she said.