Hello my dearly beloved readership,

when two cultures meet many questions arise about the other one – their habits and traits. Even more for special events in life and in the year conservative people in particular deny to go without their traditions, when they have given effort on these traditions for other events for “strangers” in the past, now they do not want to reduce the effort and glory on their proper close family members. For such a meaningful and important event as a wedding none of the cultures want to do something wrong in order not to put their feet in it. On a wedding between south-western Germans and Armenians the biggest questions were risen on the Armenian gift hampers which are better known as “Armenian Sini” (pronounced: seenie).

The word Sini can be translated as gift hamper. In the context of weddings this word is one of the most used terms. It describes the gift hamper for the wedding. In the following I am going to answer and explain the questions I have been confronted with from my family-in-law which answers I had to fathom myself.

“The bigger, expensive and beautifully decorated the gift hamper is the bigger the fortune for the married couple.”
– Fall4Me

What Meaning Does The Gift Hamper Have?

With this question I will as well explain the quote in the image: Armenian families take aim to have the best and most glorious gift hampers for their weddings or rather the weddings of their children because the Armenian Sini stands for fortune and good vibes for those who are getting married. The bigger, expensive and beautifully decorated the gift hamper is the bigger the fortune for the married couple.

What Do You Put Into The Gift Hamper?

Connected to this question is what for do you need different gift hampers. There are various ones needed: One main gift hamper which is supposed to be the bridal gift hamper and a second main one from the groom’s family. Apart from those there are some other ones. In the following I am going to list all of them along with their content:

• The bridal gift hamper: the most important of all gift hampers contains the bride’s shoes and suspender, some gifts for the bride (fashion, beauty products, etc.) and one bottle of cognac which comes from the bride’s part of the family.
• The groom’s family’s gift hamper: at one point a wedding between two children of two families symbolizes the alliance of these two families, literally. This symbol is a second bottle of cognac from the groom’s family which is taken out of the gift hamper and put together with the cognac from the bridal gift hamper. After that a toast is proposed to the couple to get married. The groom’s gift hamper can contain gifts for the couple, decorations, perfumes, pralines et cetera. The creativity is unlimited there.
• The good-luck-charm gift hamper: every guest or rather participant of the wedding is supposed to get a little gift from the bridal couple as well. This gift is a good-luck-charm – “May the fortune of us catch you, too.”, it is said from the couple just married when being congratulated. This good-luck wish is held in this charm for every household.
• The gift hamper for alternative good-luck-charms: No matter how you are celebrating your wedding – in the circle of your (closest) family or as well with your friends. Alternative smaller good-luck-charms – this time for each guest instead of each household is indispensible.
• The pralines-gift-hamper: as the term already says this gift hamper is only for certain pralines the ones that are poured over the bride after the has been completely dressed with suspender and shoes. That ahead every girl or rather woman that is finding herself in the bride’s room, before the bride is taken out of her room from her husband to be, gets one and is to eat it. The sweetness of the candy stands for sweet harmony for the married life.

The creativity for the gift hampers is unlimited as well as what to put into it. Of course, I could name some must-put-ins but in the end the family members or rather best friends who take the role of witnesses and bridesmaids better get the couple’s to get married individual taste and needs to in the end create the perfect gift hampers matching to the bridal couple and wedding-theme.

How Many Gift Hampers Are Usual For One Wedding?

As I already teased in the answers of the first two questions the more gift hampers to bigger the fortune for the couple and the more glorious the wedding. We ourselves had six gift hampers – and we are impressed ourselves looking back. A good and usual number with everything covered would be three to five or more gift hampers.

One Hand Washes The Other

Something new or unknown does not necessarily need to be something bad. My family-in-law has very well adapted to our tradition and created wonderful gift hampers from which they have not been far at all as this seemed to be a usual gift to bring in their region as well. Nevertheless we have helped them creating some of the main gift hampers as well as giving some inspiration. Perhaps you like the ideas of gift hampers as symbol of fortune and would like to integrate it for your wedding as well. As our priest said: having elements of different cultures in your life is not fobidden but a blessing.

Love, Johanna