Home Wedding Ideas Concept and style The Best Moments for Ancient Traditions

The Best Moments for Ancient Traditions

National traditions are what makes Muslim weddings so diverse but at the same time they have a lot of common features. The Quran provides a few basic recommendations on marriage and wedding practices while local customs and cultural variations make each wedding unique. In some countries they have not changed for centuries. One of the best examples is the Chechen wedding ceremony. In Dubai it has been carried out traditionally for hundreds of years and is notable for its beauty and local colour.

Play according to the rules

This is how the word “lovzar” (“wedding”) is translated from the Chechen language. Lovzar can also mean any happy event: arrival of a new baby or visit of a guest. Lovzar is an unforgettable event to celebrate! In ancient times a full year could have passed since the young people’s first meeting and the “nikah” (marriage). Today the procedure is much simpler: the girl and the young man agree on the wedding day in front of witnesses. Elder relatives or loyal friends accompany the groom to the girl’s house, and the bride-to-be appears accompanied by her mother, sister or friend. She gives a small personal item (an adornment or a kerchief) to her groom, and from this day on, she is believed to be engaged. It is similar to the engagement in Europe but whereas in European countries the engagement symbol is a luxurious ring of a famous firm, in Islam world it can be any item as long as it belongs to the bride. 

Move on!

The gaiety of the bride’s home on the first wedding day is difficult to describe. Her family is waiting for the groom’s representatives to agree upon the mahr (dowry), and as soon as the money is paid, one of the bride’s relatives takes her out of the house and lets the groom’s father or brother take her. It is impossible to fail to notice the wedding car parade on its way to the groom’s house: it is a real show with guns firing off, car horns blowing and cars nudging each other. The groom’s mother welcomes her future daughter-in-law at the entrance of the house, hugs her and treats her with a small candy – a symbol of “sweet” life. After the girl enters the house, she has to pass a small “test” on whether she will make a good housewife: she has to tidy up the area at the threshold (put a broom into the corner and a small rug on its right place). Then she is taken to a special place in the corner where she is supposed to stay during the whole wedding party. According to the Muslim traditions, the event is divided into two parts: for male and female guests, but when dancing (the lezghinka) starts, they join each other. Another interesting tradition is called the “mott bastit”: guests ask the bride to give them some water and try to make her speak. The longer the girl keeps silent, the more money the groom’s friends and family should pay. The girl can start speaking at any moment depending on how well-off her groom and his family are.

Guest and honorary witnesses

The Chechen wedding party usually lasts as long as three days, and each day should see new rituals and clothes for the bride. Experts in wedding practices, a male and a female, are specially invited to make sure the rituals are scrupulously followed. After the wedding party is over, the new wife starts to enjoy full rights of a respected housewife. She usually comes to visit her parents a month later, and she returns with nice presents for her female in-laws.

Our agency “ElegantMoments” will be happy to organize your wedding in Dubai with due respect to the best national traditions!

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