One week has passed since my cousin celebrated her wedding. My whole family assembled and we really had a great time :-)
In this blog I'll try to bring the many traditions of a bosnian wedding closer to you.
Even though Bosnia is not a big country, the traditions vary a lot from one province to the other.
The wedding took place in a beautiful Bosnian city named "Tuzla". It's located in the northeastern part of Bosnia. Maybe you already know that my family comes from Travnik, but this doesn't matter. The wedding happens in the hometown of the bridegroom, which, in this case, was Tuzla.
Well, this was already the frist point of my long list of traditions :-)
As you see on the picture my cousin wears a veil due to the fact that all the members of my family are Muslims. So I guess the traditions vary a lot between the religions as well.
The Bosnian and Islamic way of a wedding happens as follows:
1.) While the bride is getting ready for her big day, the bridegroom makes his way ahead to "pick her up". The number of cars depends on the number of the invited people. If it's a long way to drive, about 7 cars follow the bridegroom.
2.) When they arrive to the place of the bride, the bridesmaid and a few other girls begin to decorate the cars with beautiful roses and cloths. After that, they begin to put small, white roses of synthetic material on the jacket of every invited guest. While doing that, one girl carries a box in order to collect money. This was my job, by the way :p
3.) In the meantime they're having coffee and a snack.
4.) The moment the bride walks out of the house, all the men begin to sing an islamic type of a holy song/hym. It is called "ilahija" in Bosnian. Then candies are thrown in the air. I don't quite get the purpose of this tradition. It's done on every wedding!
5.) The bride says goodbye to her parents and gets in the car. Funny people set off fireworks and all the cars (including the cars of the bride) drive away hooting the car horns. It's really loud. They keep on doing that through the whole drive. The parents of the bride usually stay home and do not participate in the celebration. Instead, they grieve for their daughter :-)
6.) What comes next is an important part. They go to the register office and become husband and wife. But for an islamic couple this is not a big deal. The real marriage ceremony takes place either in a mosque or in the house of the bridegroom.
7.) Before the couple is allowed to enter the bridegroom's house, they have to do different things. Firstly, the bride has to hold the holy islamic book "Qur'an" with self-made bread in her hands. This tradition is very common. Secondly, the couple has to either drink something out of the same glass or eat honey with the same spoon. This tradition varies a lot. It basically is a sign of "togetherness". After that the bridegroom throws the spoon from one site of the house across the other. If the spoon doesn't end up on the other site, they will not be happily married.
In some parts of Bosnia the bridegroom has to rise his arm and the bride has to make the first step into the house under his outstretched arm.
8.) The islamic ceremony begins in the house as the "Imam" or "Hodza" (islamic type of a priest) acknowledges their wedding. Both the bridegroom and the bride sign the paper and then all the guests start to congratulate them. Some guests even sing an islamic verse to seal their wedding in front of witnesses.
9.) Hand in hand the couple leaves the house to celebrate their wedding. Usually a big hall is rented where the celebration starts.
The music begins and the guests start dancing. This takes quite a long time :p I, of course, was unstoppable :D
10.) As usual, the bride throws her bridal bouquet to the following bride ;-)
11.) The bride goes around and serves coffee. Again money is being taken by the bridesmaid.
12,) The final tradition is the cutting of the wedding cake. They usually daub themselves with the cream of the cake, which is pretty funny :-)
The cake was delicious!!! :-)
That's it! I hope you like the way Bosnians celebrate their weddings. It was both a touching and a wonderful wedding.
Some more pictures of the couple. I do find them cute together. They are now in Istanbul on their honeymoon trip :-)
Ja sto znam, tradicija nam je uvijek bila grancica ruzmarina a ne ta bijela sintetizka ruzica :) I druga stvar, koju sam isto cula- prije rata islamsko vijencanije nije imalo tako veliku ulogu kao sada i rijetki su to imali. Ima jos mnogi stvari koje nisu na listi o obicajima inace oko svadbe ali eto, i ova je dobra :)
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