COVID-19 lockdown forces postponing of over 500 wedding ceremonies in Karnal

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, May 15

Banquets, marriage palaces are in crisis as the lockdown owing to COVID-19 pandemic has hit the industry hard and forced people to postpone their weeding celebrations.

As per information, more than 500 marriages have been postponed by people in the district.

The owners of these establishments fear that the industry may take a year in its revival as people will hesitate to hold mass gathering in marriages in coming months also.

However, they have hopes from November and December months, which have high number of dates for marriages.

“March, April and May months had high bookings for marriages at almost all the banquet halls, lawns, and hotels as there is no date for marriages till November, but the lockdown has forced people to postpone their functions,” said Sahil Sukhija, vice president Lawn and Banquet Association, Karnal.

He said he had bookings of 23 marriages from March 24 to May end, but these have been cancelled.

An owner of another banquet hall said they have fixed expenditures like electricity charges, security cost, staff salary, property management.

“Other industries have started functioning, but our industry will take time to be back on track,” he added.

Caterer Sahil Jasuja said the entire supply chain has been impacted due to lockdown. People will not organise mass gathering to maintain social distancing.

“If the situation gets normal in couple of months, the people will avoid mass gathering functions for a long time,” he added.

Sunil Bindal, who runs a banquet hall in the city, too had to cancel 15 bookings of marriages.

He said it was a very tough time for the industry. “We have some hopes from November and December as these months have high number of dates for marriages,” he added.

Nikhil Kumar, 27, a resident of Indri, had made all arrangements for his weeding on April 13. Cards were also printed and some were distributed to friends, sweets were also made and a grand celebration was planned, but due to nationwide lockdown, he has postponed his marriage.

“Amid this lockdown, wedding was not possible for me without my near and dear ones, so my family has decided to postpone the marriage till the end of this year,” he added.

A 30-year-old local resident said that they had no option but to postpone the wedding, scheduled on April 10, due to lockdown.