The Last Feast at the Bride's Father's House
Talas
Cholponkulov
kainazar
Jekach zhuktir — the sending of the wooden frame of orgyo (house jekach) from the groom to the bride's village. He is accompanied by the groom's mother.
Uyi jekach — a treat that the groom sends for this occasion to the bride's village. The dishes are already prepared in the bride's village. A week later, the groom's side receives a notification that everything is ready.
Janyzak
solto
Jekach zhuktir — the groom's father slaughters a ram and, together with his wife and son, goes to the bride's father, bringing with him raw meat, boorsaks, and other treats. The meat is given to the bride's house. Special yurts are set up for the groom and his parents. Boorsak and other items serve to treat the visitors. The bride's father organizes a toy (the last feast before the bride's departure. — B.K., S.G.).
The groom's father slaughters a mare, prepares the meat, then calls the bride's father and says: "Here I have prepared food, now treat your village." Then all the bride's dowry is displayed. Bakans53 are set up, a rope is stretched, and coats, chapans, blankets, and other items are hung at her father's yurt.
The next day, the bride's father offers the matchmaker to take the dowry, gives him another horse, and starts loading the dowry onto camels. Then they prepare the bride's horse. All the pack animals are also given to the bride from her home.
If a yurt is included in the dowry, the groom is placed inside it. All the dowry is packed inside it.
The treats are located in the yurt of the bride's father.
rch. Big Keben
Kydyr
Before the departure (of the bride. B.K., S.G.), a big toy is organized, and two or three mares are slaughtered.
Sagimbai
Then a toy is organized, after which the young bride moves to her husband. Until then, from the moment of the contract between the fathers, the groom is called kain, and the bride is called koluktu. At the toy, the groom brings livestock and organizes treats and various games (kök boru and others).
In the bride's village, before her departure (? — F.F.), the men (from the groom's side) try to take the dowry, while the women defend it and do not give it away. They firmly drive a stake into the ground and tie a thick lasso to it. To take the items, the men must pull out the stake, which the women hinder by pulling on the lasso. If the men begin to overpower, the women, in defense, use dirt, dung, flour, which they throw at the attackers and smear on their faces; the men dare not respond with a counterattack. If they manage to pull out the stake, they still have to stay overnight, as it is already late; if they do not succeed, they have to go to the women to bow and redeem the dowry with gifts54.
The father and mother of the groom are in the same village. In the yurt where they are placed, there are two people, one from each side to provide services and honor. The bride's father slaughters livestock. They start the accounting. Those who have a conscience add more to balance the bride price and dowry.
Bride Price and Dowry
r. Tyup
Jingish aji
Bride price — from the father of the groom. Orgyo with all the furnishings and the bride's clothing (shbukele and others), equipment for pack animals, and the animals themselves — from the father of the bride.
Depending on the wealth of the groom's father, the bride price can be: chon bai, orte, ayak. Chon bai, i.e., "big bai" allocates 100 heads of large cattle (horses, cows, camels) and 1000 heads of rams; orte, i.e., "medium" — 50 heads of large cattle and 100 rams; ayak, i.e., "poor" — 25 heads of large cattle and 50 rams.
Payment is made in two installments. At the second payment, in addition to the required number of livestock, the father of the groom takes one camel with four loaves of bread, two poods of dried apricots, raisins, a head of sugar, one whole (burnt) ram, one cut and boiled, and organizes a toy (the mother of the groom and aunt also come).
The father of the bride slaughters a mare, gathers the girls and young brides, and organizes an oyun at night.
Karavos
The final agreement on how much needs to be added to what has already been paid occurs a few days before the young bride's departure.
If the groom refuses to take the bride as his wife after the first wedding night, the father retains everything that has been given up to that time, and the bride returns to her father.
The amount of the dowry is determined by the bride's father according to his conscience.
translated by Emel on Jumgale
Chinavay Kasymbekov
The dowry is hung in the village of her father after the marriage ceremony, before the young couple departs to the husband's village.
Preliminarily, for counting and inspection, the goods are hung on a lasso stretched from one changarak to another of the neighboring yurt, and then everything is brought into the orgyo and hung inside.
rch. Big Keben
Chinavay
The dowry is hung on a lasso stretched from one changarak to another, at some places throughout the village. Bulzhayde — dowry; sep — clothing of the bride and equipment for her horse.
Bulzhayde is hung on the morning of the wedding day. The parents organize a toy, summon guests; they make baiga for adult horses and kunans55. Before the baiga, guests are treated and inspect the dowry. Upon returning from the baiga, the groom's parents gift the bride's parents a good horse and buy the right to take down the bulzhayde from the lassos by their own efforts and pack it into the orgyo.
local. Sarybulak
Satyvaldy
buku
Zhuk sanar56 — some highly respected elder among those present at the wedding counts the dowry collected and packed in the orgyo — everything related to furnishings, bedding, and more. While he counts, outside stands a good horse (or camel) tied to the orgyo, which was brought by a close friend of the groom's family. After the counting is finished, the horse (camel) is given as a gift to the bride's father. Zhuk sanar (the elder) chooses a gift for himself from what he counted, of equal value to a good horse.
Upon the departure of the young couple, the bride's father, if he is a wealthy man, must give as dowry to his daughter nine camels, a valuable pacing horse, good clothing for the groom and his companion (kuyо-joldash57), in addition to gifts for the matchmaker and matchmaker's wife.
Besides what is packed in the orgyo, valuable clothing hangs on lassos around the village, stretched on shields; the lasso is threaded through the sleeves of coats, chapans, like a fence.
rch. Big Keben
Sagimbai
Zhuk zhiyu58 — when the young bride is sent to the husband's village, the dowry includes: 15 colorful kochms, up to a thousand chapans. Upon leaving the native village, part of the dowry goes to local elders and honorable people. Then, upon arriving in his village, the young groom organizes a toy, during which more of the dowry is distributed among his relatives and fellow villagers59.
The poorest person gives no less than five blankets for his daughter.
Muslim Marriage — Nika
rch. Big Keben
Karavos
Time of the Nika ceremony. Nika was performed on the same night as the takya said, so that any child born afterward would be legitimate.
Batyrkhan
On the eve of the bride's departure, the marriage ceremony is performed (l. 59).
rch. Big Keben
Sagimbai
In the morning (after the first wedding night. — B.K.> S.G.) the mullah is called to marry the young couple60.
local. Sarybulak
Satyvaldy
buku
Place of the Nika ceremony. Nika is performed depending on the mullah in one or another village, in the father's yurt.
The bride sits behind the keshogyo on the right below, the groom — among the people. The keshogyo belongs to the bride (l. 41).
Talas
Cholponkulov
kainazar
Nika is done in the groom's village on the very first day of arrival.
rch. Big Keben
Chinavay
Before the nika, the groom in the bride's village changes into all new clothes made for him by the bride's parents, leaving his old clothes with the aunts (zhenge). The bride herself does not sew anything, otherwise she will be reproached for wanting to get married. The bride also changes into a new dress. All this happens during the installation of the orgyo. This new clothing is called kuiy kızdyke (kiim)61.
Comments:
53 Bakan — a pole used to raise the kochms and the upper part of the yurt frame.
54 See note 39.
55 Baiga — horse racing held in honor of some important event and necessarily for a wedding. Among the Karakalpaks and Kyrgyz, goat wrestling was held after a successful matchmaking (Esbergenov X., Atamuratov T. Op. cit. P. 87; Kisyakov N.A. Essays... P. 115). Among the Karategin Kyrgyz, as noted by some informants to B.H. Karmysheva, races were held only for circumcision, and were not held at weddings. This may be related to the influence of Fergana on the customs of the Karategins, where the feast for circumcision is considered a more important event than a wedding. Kunan — a foal in the third year.
56 Zhuk Sanar — literally, "the one who counts the dowry".
57 Kuyob-joldash — literally, "friend of the groom".
58 Zhuk zhiyu — literally, "collection of the dowry".
59 See note 21.
60 This shows once again that the attitude towards the Muslim marriage was more than formal. See note 40.
61 Dressing in all new clothes before the marriage ceremony signifies for the groom and bride a transition to the next age group. Kuiy kyzdyke (kiim) — the clothing of the groom and bride.
Fedor Fielstrup. From the ritual life of the Kyrgyz at the beginning of the 20th century. Part -4