Azerbaijan Marriage Practices

Azerbaijan is a country having a unique and rich matrimony tradition. It can be known worldwide because of its rich and festive ceremonies. The wedding commemoration is along with a reception with traditional food.

A few days before the wedding party, a groom’s family arranges for a dowry ceremony to organize the new bride for her marital relationship. The dowry includes home bedding, clothes, shoes and boots, jewels and also other gifts.

Throughout the period prior to wedding, the star of the wedding was a guest of her relatives and friends in turn. She was handed blankets, mattresses, pillows, a nazbalish (a huge, soft pillow), carpets, cookware and other presents that have been added to her dowry.

In some places, a ‘khinayakhdi’ was held in which all the girls and women were dyed with henna and decorated all their hands. It was a way of showing that the lady is ready to get married.

Then a number of 25-30 people gathered around https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2010/10/755-marrying-out.pdf the bride. One of her friends, sisters-in-law or her father put a ring on the ring finger and protected her shoulder muscles with a kerchief. They also gave her a few sweets.

After the ‘khinayakhdi’, merry-making and dancing started out. The music lasted until the morning hours.

In some areas, the ‘khinayakhdi’ took place in the bride’s home whilst in other neighborhoods it was saved in the groom’s house. On the ‘khinayakhdi’, the girls and women sang online dating safety tips bayati https://asianbrides.org/azerbaijani-women/ (folk quatrains) and danced. They were also given trays of fruit and charaz (nuts, fried peas and dried up fruits) that have been placed on a shakh-tree.