RIBNOVO, Bulgaria (Reuters) – Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, will marry with her eyes shut and her face painted white, dotted with bright sequins. She lives ‘at the finish associated with world’, tending a hardy muslim tradition in mostly Christian Bulgaria.
Kiddies view the marriage ceremony of Moussa Babechki and Fikrie Sabrieva when you look at the town of Ribnovo, when you look at the Rhodope Mountains, some 210km (130miles) south of Sofia January 13, 2008. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
The remote town of Ribnovo, set on a mountainside that is snowy southwest Bulgaria, has kept its old-fashioned cold temperatures wedding ceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution, accompanied by poverty that forced a lot of men to get work abroad.
“Other nearby villages tried the marriage that is traditional the ban had been lifted, then again the custom somehow died away — ladies wanted become contemporary, ” said Ali Mustafa Bushnak, 61, whoever daughter arrived to look at Fikrie’s wedding.
“Maybe our company is at the conclusion associated with world. Or people in Ribnovo have become proud and religious of the traditions. ”
Some professionals say clinging towards the old-fashioned marriage ceremony is Ribnovo’s reply to the persecutions for the past.
Bulgaria may be the European that is only Union where Muslims’ share is really as high as 12 per cent. The regime that is communist which would not tolerate any spiritual rituals, tried to forcibly integrate Muslims into Bulgaria’s mostly Christian Orthodox populace, pushing them to abandon using their conventional outfits and adopt Slavonic names.
The marriage ritual had been resurrected with vitality among the list of Pomaks — Slavs whom changed into Islam under Ottoman guideline and now compensate 2.5 per cent of Bulgaria’s 7.8 million populace — after communism collapsed in 1989.
But today it’s still done just into the shut culture of Ribnovo plus one other town within the Balkan nation. Teenage boys get back from abroad into the mountain that is crisp, only for the wintertime weddings.
People in Ribnovo identify themselves more by their faith, as Muslims, than by their nationality or ethnicity, as well as the marriage ceremony is a manifestation of these piety. The town has 10 clerics and two mosques for 3,500 inhabitants.
DOWRY in DISPLAY
Fikrie’s family members have now been laboriously turning up her dowry since she was created — mostly handmade knit-work, quilts, coverlets, sheets, aprons, socks, floor coverings.
On a sunny Saturday cold weather early morning they hang the things on a scaffolding that is wooden law and order svu ukrainian brides full episode 50 meters very very long and three meters high, erected especially for the event regarding the high, dirty road of scruffy two-storey homes that results in her house.
Most people when you look at the town involves examine the offerings: Fikrie’s tiny homeyard has been changed into a showroom when it comes to furniture and home appliances the bride needs to offer her brand brand new home.
The girl and her husband-to-be, Moussa, 20, then lead a horo that is traditional on the central square, accompanied by all the village’s youth.
However the highlight for the ceremony, the painting for the bride’s face, comes by the end regarding the day that is second.
In a rite that is private and then feminine in-laws, Fikrie’s face is covered in dense, chalky white paint and decorated with colorful sequins. A lengthy red veil covers her locks, her head is framed with tinsel, her painted face veiled with and silvery filaments.
Clad in baggy jeans and bodice shimmering in every the colors for the rainbow, the bride is presented by her husband to be, her mom along with her grandmother into the waiting audience.
Fikrie isn’t allowed to start her eyes wide until a Muslim priest blesses the young few. Liquor is forbidden in the wedding receptions and intercourse before wedding is taboo.
BANNED RITUALS
Ethnographers state it really is difficult to date the painting that is bridal, whilst the communist regime did not encourage studies into minority cultural and spiritual teams.
“It is quite likely that it’s an invented tradition. It’s their solution to show who they really are, ” said Margarita Karamihova, a co-employee teacher during the Ethnography Institute associated with Bulgarian Academy of Science.
Professionals say Pomaks had identification dilemmas and encountered more challenges compared to bulk of Muslims in Bulgaria, that are ethnic Turks.
“In the 1960s they might ban Islamic music at weddings, they will never enable old-fashioned clothing, as well as in the 1980s, the complete conventional Pomak wedding had been prohibited, ” said municipality mayor, Ahmed Bashev, born in Ribnovo.
Ribnovo’s inhabitants utilized to create a living from tobacco and agriculture, but low incomes into the EU country that is poorest forced men to start out searching for jobs in urban centers in Bulgaria or in western Europe — maybe not minimum to increase cash for a marriage.
Outside impacts have now been slow to attain Ribnovo and people that are young marry an outsider. Another Fikrie, 19-year-old Fikrie Inuzova, advised the ladies, for who the appropriate bridal age is as much as 22, aren’t pretty quickly to modernize.
“My sibling wants to visit, start to see the globe. It’s different for males. They are able to do any. I do want to remain right right here and marry. ”