The Parsi wedding, lagan, is long and cheerful. The couple are seated facing each other with a cloth held between them while a cord is passed around them seven times; rice is thrown by both, and when the cloth is dropped, whoever showers the other first is said, with much laughter, to have the upper hand. Two priests recite the ashirwad, the blessing, over them in the presence of witnesses. What is theologically distinctive is that marriage is a positive religious obligation rather than a concession to weakness — there is no celibate ideal to be measured against — and the admonitions in the ceremony are addressed to bride and groom in the same terms, asking each whether they have consented of their own free will. Weddings are also where the community's central conflict is most visible, since a marriage to a non-Zoroastrian will not be performed by orthodox priests in India and the woman is held to have left the community, while a man in the same position is not.