Not-so-golden weddings

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0:30to make those markets work for you. Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

0:46Estás escuchando The Fifth Floor. The Fifth Floor, ¿reduy? ¿Ves? ¿Ves? ¿Ves? ¿Ves? ¿V? ¿V? ¿V? ¿V? ¿V? ¿V? ¿V? ¿V? fifth floor, at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world. I'm your host, Farhanak Amidi.

1:15Gold prices are high. I mean, really high. In October this year, they rose to about 4 ,000 US dollars per ounce for the first time. As a reflection of uncertainty around the globe, Conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, plus numerous economic and social challenges. Many countries are seeing changing behaviors as a result, not only amongst economists and central bankers, but also ordinary citizens. So here at the fifth floor, we asked our language service colleagues to reflect on the changes they've seen in their region.

1:55I talk with the gold shop owners in Hong Kong. They all told me that they have never seen this gold fever before. In just one day, they have around 200 customers. Traditionally, in Hong Kong society, gold can be seen as a symbol of wealth and lucky. In the past, we always have an impression. Only the elderly or middle-aged people love to buy gold. But surprisingly, one shop owner told me that around 40 % customers are young people. They're all interested in buying gold. It has become much more trendy. After decades of keeping in Western banks, during the last five years, Serbia has decided to withdraw tons and tons of gold from abroad back to its own vaults.

2:52In an environment of, as they say, increased global uncertainty, the National Bank of Serbia imported and returned 13 tons of gold from abroad. 12 tons were brought from Switzerland, while one was returned from the United Kingdom. The gold reserves of Serbia are now 51.7 tons. Gold plays a very real and deeply rooted role in Jordanian society and across much of the Arab world. This region has experienced wars, economic crises and currency collapses in several countries. In that context, gold becomes a reliable store of value. It can be sold easily almost anywhere and often retains its worth over time.

3:50That was Kowi Lee from the BBC's Hong Kong Bureau, Nemanja Mitrovic from the Belgrade Bureau and Leith Issam from the Amman Bureau. Now, with me on the line from Delhi is BBC journalist Avik Depp. Welcome to the Fifth Floor. Hi, Farina. I'm so glad to join you here. Yeah, it's great to have you. So, Avik, we just heard from our colleagues from different parts of the world how the gold prices are affecting people and their region and changing their behavior around the world. What are gold prices like in India right now? Oh, they have been skyrocketing, especially over the last year. So I looked up the numbers just this morning, and the price for 10 grams of 24 karat gold is 132 ,000 Indian rupees.

4:39And just to give you a context, just a year ago, it stood at around 80 ,000 Indian rupees. So that's more than 65 % spike, to be precise. And gold is really important in Indian culture, isn't it? It's embedded in your festivals and rituals. Tell us more. It is. So, I mean, if we go back in history, there have been studies which show that gold jewelry, gold elements were in use as far back as during the Indus Valley civilization. There is mention of gold in the oldest Hindu scriptures, which is called the Rig Veda. So there is mention of gold in those scriptures as well. And that sort of percolates through to Indian culture as of today.

5:32Across festivals, people do buy gold. So if I could mention a few, there is this festival called Dhanteras, which is celebrated just a day before Diwali. Diwali, I think, is more common of a festival and our audience will be aware of it. so Indians buy gold on dhanteras and that is supposed to be auspicious I mean there's the cultural aspect as well and eventually it's a pragmatic decision because you save these gold coins that you buy over the years and that sort of becomes a savings instrument for you so there's dhanteras then there is another festival called the Akshay Trithya now if you go back to the history of it if you search on the internet there are several reasons you will find why it is celebrated But irrespective of why it is celebrated, the fact remains that people do buy gold on that day.

6:24Again, if you go to visual imagery, the Hindu deity for wealth was known as Lakshmi. So the most popular image, the visual imagery of Lakshmi shows her hand stood up in the gesture of blessings. And there's a stream of gold coming out of her hand. So it really is deeply embedded in the Indian culture. And I've not even mentioned the weddings. Yeah, and I want to get into the weddings right now because that is what we want to know. How is it effective? Because it plays a huge part in the wedding and everything. Tell us more. It does. Yeah, so again, I was just looking up some numbers before joining you.

7:01And so as it happens, India has around 10 million weddings annually. And 40 % to nearly half of the country's total gold demand is during the wedding season. So yeah, that's massive. And you have a wedding season. Tell us about that. Yeah, we do. We do. So currently, as we speak in December, this is one of the wedding seasons. And this wedding season spans till January 14th when the wedding season sort of breaks. And then it again begins from February. So these are the two major wedding seasons when people believe that these are the auspicious dates for weddings. So this is when the price of gold actually shoots up even more because people buy golds by tons during this time.

7:47So yeah, I mean, it obviously started as something that is auspicious. So since weddings are a special occasion, people want to buy gold to keep it auspicious. But then eventually, as it turned out, rifting gold, buying gold, this sort of got embedded in the downy system. and that became somewhat of a status symbol and people would often flaunt that, okay, you know, my daughter got wedded and this is the amount of gold that we bought during the wedding. Then it becomes a bit of a performative thing as well and you want to have a certain stature in the society, especially people from the affluent class who can afford buying more gold.

8:30So yeah, that's how things are at this point. So this is putting a lot of these, the rise in the gold price is putting a lot of pressure on people who are not affluent and rich, especially in this culture. So how are some regions in India responding to all of this? Yeah, so exactly. I mean, I think you've put it pretty correctly that people who are not very well off. So this sort of system of buying gold, it's even though the affluent class buys it more, but this is all pervasive. people across various states of the society. They buy gold during their weddings. And in the recent past, there have been two reports from the Indian languages.

9:14And if I could mention them, there was this one report from our Gujarati service from the Rabari community, who are traditionally cattle herders in the western and northwestern part of India. And they ran a campaign which included putting out videos, WhatsApp messages and all of that, where they said that we'll wed our sons and daughters without any jewellery. And their logic simply was that it puts a lot of pressure on us. We are not very well off and just to keep up with the social standards, it is becoming unpeaceable for us. It's not feasible for us to buy gold anymore. A similar example, we saw another in a village in the northern state.

9:57It's a hilly state of Uttarakhand, where a village council came together and they said that for all the weddings, the families can buy just three pieces of ornaments. So they put a cap on it. So, you know, that's how people are trying to cope with it. And what about the urban areas? Yeah, that's a very good question, actually, because, you know, both the societies, the communities that I mentioned, they are small communities and it's easier for them that if a decision is taken by the community leaders or the village council then it's easier for them to to implement that decision across the community but these sort of social contracts that you can see in in a closed-knit community like a cattle herders community or or in a village situation these sort of social contracts tend to break loose when you come to the urban centers.

10:53But that does not mean that people in the urban areas are not feeling the pinch. That is still the case. Even in urban centers, there are multiple news reports. If you look up Indian news reports on trends of buying gold during the wedding season, there's anecdotal evidence from both buyers and gold sellers that people are buying less gold as compared to maybe a few years back. There's also anecdotal evidence that people are buying lighter gold, maybe an 18 karat gold, or the jewelry itself is not very heavy. It's a thin gold string maybe, so that you do not do away completely with the tradition, but you cut the cost as well.

11:35There are also instances where people are actually reusing their older gold ornaments. For example, if a mother had got some gold ornament during her wedding, she would reuse it, repurpose it to buy gold for her daughter or for her son. And if I could just add one more thing. So gold jewelry still makes up for majority of the gold that Indians buy. But of late, there has been a trend of people buying more of gold coins or gold bars. And And that's because, you know, gold is also seen, as I mentioned earlier, as a savings instrument. But people are sentimental about jewelry. That's like a family heirloom.

12:16So they might not be, you know, as ready to sell off jewelry when crisis strikes. But the same amount of sentiment is not there for a gold bar or a gold coin. So people have started. So that's also a trend that is, I mean, jewelry is still makes for the majority of the gold that Indians buy. But there is a trend towards bar and coins. It's very interesting because in Iranian culture, gold is very important. It's something you give to the bride and groom for the wedding as well. But it's always gold coins. Right. Yeah, yeah. It has always been. So like you say, I give 120 gold coins or 2 ,000 gold, depending on how affluent you are.

12:56So, yeah. So, Avek, you got married this year. Congratulations. Welcome to the club. Thank you. But the gold prices did affect your plans, didn't they? I would say we circumvented that. How did you do that? Yeah, so I mean, to begin with me and my partner, and I'm lucky to find a partner who was not fixated on the idea of buying gold for their weddings. You are a lucky man. I was doubly lucky because our families agreed on that, because that's the next hurdle that your partner might agree with you, but your families don't. so even they were fine with not buying too much gold because you know often it has happened that the gold that you get at your wedding they are very intense heavy pieces of ornaments and you do not wear them for for a regular office day right so the idea was for me and my partner that even if we did not buy any gold on our own to be fair so whatever gold we got was from our parents from our relatives but even then we told them that you know if you are giving us gold give us something practical yeah something that is practical maybe we could wear on a regular office day so that was one thing and the other thing that we did was so as I mentioned that there are auspicious dates for wedding in the Indian culture to be more specific in the Hindu culture because you know that's the faith I come from but we did not we again we were not fixated on getting married on an auspicious day so we sort of bought gold in that gap period that I mentioned between January 14th and February.

14:34So that's a gap period. No weddings happen during that time. So the gold prices fall during that time. And again, when the second phase of wedding starts, the prices go up and you're not supposed to buy gold during that lull period because that is considered inauspicious. But we had no such. We thought that, OK, let's be pragmatic about this. The prices are down right now. So let's buy whatever we need to buy during this period. So just to give you a number. When we bought gold, it was around 90 ,000 Indian rupees for 10 grams. And as I said, currently, it's at 131 ,000. Wow. So it's almost a 50 % discount.

15:13So yeah, that's how we You're a wise man. Wise couple. Yes, we are. Thank you very much, Aavec. This is The Fifth Floor, and I'm Farun Akamidi.

15:35I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the boardroom, the newsroom and the trading floor. That's longer than most podcast hosts have been alive. But even though I've got questions, join me, Merrin's Upset Web, every week for my show, Merrin Talks Money from Bloomberg Podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers, strategists and experts about how markets really work. And join me for a separate episode where I answer listener questions on how to make those markets work for you. Follow Meron Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

16:16The town of San Martín, Sacatepec, is a pretty remote spot in Guatemala's western highlands. It's not an area known for having a booming economy or a lot of job prospects. And like many Guatemalans, its residents often look for work north of the border, in the United States of America. The money they send home, called remittance, provides vital support to the families they leave behind. But in recent years, the impact of that money has become visible in other ways too, Amongst the traditional, ordinary-looking houses on the streets of the town, a new type of building is springing up, and they are changing the shape of the place.

17:00Atahualpa Amarise went to take a look for BBC Mundo.

17:08Traditional houses in Guatemala, especially in Guatemala, small towns, are made with adobe. They are these kind of very, very humble houses with white facetades. They look very light and weak. And they contrast highly with these new constructions that are made by remittances that are colorful. They are strong. They are tall. They are flamboyant. They are usually like two or three stories high, painted in bright colors like turquoise, yellow, pink, blue. They have usually metal balconies, tinted windows, LED lighting, and a very modern look that contrasts sharply with the surrounding rural environment.

17:58In Guatemala, there are not many opportunities, especially in these small towns. They can work in agriculture. They grow a lot of vegetables around there. They can work also in tourism, but tourism is not that big. So they go to the north for more opportunities. And this is a move that Guatemalans make in big numbers. Guatemala has a population of about 18.5 million people. On top of that, an estimated 3.6 million Guatemalans live in the United States, which means roughly one in five people of Guatemalan origin is now living north of the border. They just try to work in the U.S. for a few years, send money to their relatives and come back to Guatemala.

18:47And some of them, they use that money to build their houses. For many of the families that I talk to, they mean basically the American dream. They mean success and they mean pride in front of their neighbors, their family. Talking to families in the town, Atahualpa was able to understand why these new style houses look so different from the traditional ones around them. We talked to an architect who was an expert on these kind of constructions, and he dedicates himself to just build those kind of remittances, houses. and he told us that recently people ask for this kind of automation in their houses, just control everything with their phones, control the lights, control the appliances, everything.

19:39That's also a way that people want to impress visitors and neighbours. Perhaps the appeal of automation, everything controlled with the touch of a button, becomes obvious when we think about the years of work that go into these houses. They are very, very hardworking people. They send most of the money they earn. They have sometimes two jobs and they can make like$4 ,000 or$5 ,000 a month. They would send like 60 % or 70%. They dedicate most of their salaries to not only building their houses, but also to help their relatives that are in Guatemala. And then they would live in the U.S. in a small apartment shared with other migrants, and they would spend the minimum possible in food.

20:28They would not take a lot of holidays, or if they have holidays, they would try to work somewhere else. You know, those people, they work for years. They send money to local architects and local builders to build their house as they want. They sent pictures from the United States from similar houses to show what they want. They are people who were born very poor in very small houses with not even all the conditions that a house usually has. So returning home to their new, big, beautiful houses represents the peak of all the hard work that they did in years in the U.S. they dream with that moment of coming back to their little hometown and show all their family or their neighbors what they achieved.

21:24That big, beautiful house, automated, colorful, full of LED lights, tinted windows, compared to other houses in the neighborhood or in the town. For example, I talked to Maria, a woman living in San Martín, Zacatepeque, who has a beautiful, big mansion full of colors and tinted windows. That mansion was built with the money that her mom sends from the United States, from Virginia. And her mom works cleaning houses. She has been cleaning houses for more than 11 years. And that's a product of her hard work.

22:27We used to have a house here. It was so small. And now I have a shop and a living room. On the third floor, there are four bedrooms and a shower. My mum works in cleaning. She works seven days a week. She's working hard. She's really battling. My mum said, I'd love to make my house in an American style because I'd like to have a house like the ones I've been cleaning. Maria keeps one special bedroom closed off. Her mother migrated to the U.S. in 2011 and spent more than a decade cleaning houses. So the room Maria keeps closed is reserved for her mother. It's the best room in the house. And she's expecting her mother to return one day and to occupy that room that she could earn with her work.

23:23Many mansions like Maria's will feature a small shop or workspace on the ground floor, reflecting their owners' plans to run businesses once they return home. Because for all their careful economic planning, it can be hard for migrant workers to be certain of their future. And this year has seen the rate of money sent home by Guatemalans increase rapidly. In the first nine months of 2025 alone, Guatemalan migrants sent back about 14.4 billion US dollars in remittances. That represents roughly a fifth of Guatemala's entire economy. And remittances rose by almost 20 % compared to the same period last year, which is a very sharp increase by historical standards.

24:14One of the key factors appears to be fear. Donald Trump tightened immigration enforcement when he returned to the White House. So many migrants are worried that they could be deported at any moment. So they are sending as much money home as possible while they still can.

24:35Thanks to Atahualpa Amarise from the BBC's Miami Bureau. We've talked a fair bit about the lure of gold today, from jewelry to investment to money sent home to family. But before we go, a number of our colleagues also took the time to tell us more about maybe the most fascinating gold of all, the kind that hasn't been found yet. Here is Nemanja Mitrovic and Leith Issam one last time. Jordan has seen many civilizations, for example, the Romans and later the Ottoman Empire, which collapsed just over 100 years ago. and over time people began to believe that these civilizations left behind hidden treasures some stories say Ottoman officials or families buried gold hoping to return for it one day and when that never happened the gold according to these stories stayed underground certain places are always mentioned Caves, old railway lines, abandoned ruins And here's where it gets even more unusual Many treasure hunters genuinely believe That these hidden treasures are guarded by what we call an Arabic jinn or demons Because of that, they often bring someone who presents himself as a sheikh or a spiritual man believing he can protect them from harm or prevent the gold from disappearing again.

26:08Whatever one thinks of these beliefs, searching for buried gold or antiquities in Jordan without official permission is illegal. It can lead to heavy fines and even prison sentences. And yet, many people still take the rest. Gold is part of the legend of buried and hidden treasure. In eastern Serbia, it is often searched for, both in caves and in rivers. On a river peck, it is called the Golden River, because it has some chunks of gold in it. During the 1990s, members of Serbian mafia competed to see who would have the thickest gold chain around their necks. There are also folk customs and rituals.

26:57Gold jewelry is often passed down from generation to generation within a family. And even today, mothers often say to their children, Zlatomoe, which literally means my gold.

27:15Thanks to everyone who took part in today's program. And I want to remind you that we love hearing from you. So you can email us at thefifthfloor at bbc.co.uk. That's thefifthfloor, all one word, at bbc.co.uk.

27:36You've been listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the boardroom, the newsroom and the trading floor. That's longer than most podcast hosts have been alive. But even though I've got questions, join me, Merrin's Upset Web, every week for my show, Merrin Talks Money, from Bloomberg Podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers, strategists, and experts about how markets really work. And join me for a separate episode where I answer listener questions on how to make those markets work for you.

28:09Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.