What kind of Chechen wedding actually happens

We offer you to get acquainted with the traditions of the Chechen wedding, which is distinguished by a special color characteristic of the Chechen people.

At first it may seem that there is nothing complicated in the organization of this holiday, but this is not so. This is a very beautiful event, consisting of many complex and unchanging rituals for a very long time.

The peculiarity of Chechen wedding traditions is that they are observed with scrupulous accuracy, taking into account all the points passed down by ancestors from generation to generation. With minor changes, these festive rites have also been preserved in modern Chechen society. In the photo: relatives and friends take pictures of the bride as a keepsake in the parental home in the village of Achkhoy-Martan before the upcoming wedding ceremony in the city of Grozny.

When it comes time to say goodbye to the stepfather's house, many brides can't help but cry. Despite the prevailing stereotype about Chechen marriages, I must say that they are very democratic. No one marries a girl by force. This is primarily contrary to religious canons. Chechens have a delicate attitude towards girls in general, whether it's a daughter, a sister or just a friend. All men are obliged to treat her with respect, respectively, to respect her choice.

On the appointed day, usually by noon, relatives and friends of her husband, young and old, among whom there is necessarily a mullah, come for the girl. He should contact the girl's father (or his proxy) with the question of consent to this marriage. After talking with his father, the mullah goes to the girl with the same question. The mullah must talk to the girl in the presence of women who act as witnesses. It is desirable that they are adults and married. After the girl's consent to the marriage, the representative of the clergy asks to repeat surahs from the Koran after him. Later, he also talks to the groom and witnesses from his side. This is how marriage is concluded.

The bride's parents do not go to the wedding and take minimal part in the celebration at home. Their daughter's wedding is a rather sad event for them.

The dowry and gifts prepared by the bride for the new family are taken by relatives from the groom's side and taken to the girl's new home.

The groom does not show up at the wedding. He sits in a room specially reserved for him and his friends and has fun with them there. In the best traditions, he should not show himself even to his relatives, not to mention his parents, so the bride is taken out by his friend or close relative.

Usually the bride's relatives delay the wedding procession, blocking the way with a burka or a rope stretched across the street — you need to pay a ransom to get through. Neighborhood children are trying in every way to get their part of the ransom, preventing cars from leaving the bride's yard.

The groom's friends arrange whole performances on the way to the wedding.

Modern Chechen weddings are more often arranged in restaurants, and not at the groom's house. The celebration lasts for three days and three nights, the first day of which is in a restaurant.

Only during the wedding ceremony, the girl gets acquainted with almost all the relatives from the groom's side. Until this day, she often communicates only with her future husband's sisters.

An integral part of the holiday is a feast and national dances, which last all three days of the wedding.

Guests come to the event with gifts for the newlyweds. Women give everything they need in the household, up to bed linen, dishes, as well as pieces of cloth, rugs. Men, as a rule, give money to the bride instead of gifts. This is a separate rite, which, apparently, will never leave Chechen society.

Throughout the day, the bride stands in a corner prepared for her, where new relatives periodically approach her. She can sit down only with the permission of her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law, who themselves must put her somewhere away from the common tables.