Marriage Ceremony
Osh District, Actor Kumbel
Ray Kuvaev
The groom and bride are tied together with ropes before the nikah, and then their supporters pull them in different directions62.
r. Bolshoy Kebin
Zhanteli
After the preparations are completed (for departure. — B.K., S.G.), on the eve of the departure, they call the mullah, slaughter a ram, and have a feast. The mullah takes a cup of water63 and asks the groom and bride, who sit during the ceremony behind the koshoje, about their consent to marry; the ceremony takes place in the yurt of the bride's parents, and the youth come there together. The cup is passed around the mullah, the newlyweds, and all present. Then everyone disperses, and the newlyweds return to the orgyo.
Jingish Aji
After the ceremony, the koshoje is immediately removed, and the newlyweds are taken out of the yurt, separated from the public, and led to the orgyo, where the koshoje is hung to the right of the tora — in the host's place. The bed is already made high.
per. Emel on Jumgal
Jinavay
Before the nikah itself, the bride's parents slaughter a ram and treat the mullah and other guests. After this, the actual marriage ceremony takes place in the yurt of the bride's parents. To the left of the tora hangs a koshoje — new, good, if the old one is torn. The yurt gathers the mullah, the parents of the groom and bride, and others. Meanwhile, the groom and bride sit in the orgyo (there is no koshoje there). When everything is ready, the groom and bride are brought together, covered (the girls and women) from the eyes with their chapans, and seated behind the koshoje. During the ceremony, questions and answers about consent are whispered by special witnesses, as the participants are shy to speak loudly.
Orgyo and Keshygo
r. Tyup
Jingish Aji
Orgyo is set up only before the bride's departure, i.e., for the nikah.
Karakoil District, valley of the r. Tyup
Orgyo is set up only on the wedding day.
Orgyo is still only set up before the young bride is sent to her husband. This time depended on the speed of the payment of kalym: from one year to five or six years. Thus, some wives moved to live with their husbands already with children. Before entering the orgyo in the bride's aul, in addition to the ram, they also slaughtered a goat and sent it to a neighboring yurt, but did not eat themselves. During the slaughter, they expressed wishes for a good life64.
The fire in the orgyo was lit in the usual way65.
Orgyo is set up only on the day of the nikah, and before that, for the groom's visit, someone else's yurt was simply freed up.
r. Tyup
Orgyo kёtёрмёк — the installation of a wedding yurt. For this installation, the groom gives a ram, which is slaughtered and cooked there, and the aul of the father-in-law is treated. They slaughter it near the orgyo, cut off the head. Someone from the elders throws it out through the tunnel from the inside.
Then it is also boiled and eaten. After the feast, the orgyo becomes the property of the groom66, and his relatives, who came with him, settle in it (? — F.F.).
Kengesh ayak67 — in the orgyo, the groom's parents slaughter and cook a ram, take it to the father-in-law, asking for permission for the wedding (i.e., for taking the bride away). The father-in-law demands a tay (mare, cow) by a certain day. While the groom's parents prepare the mare, the herd keeper comes and demands a zhylkychi koy for himself; then women who set up the orgyo come, demanding gifts (kada): orgyo zhabar, toshёk kaatar — for the kosmy and bed.
r. Bolshoy Kebin
Batyrykhan
When setting up the orgyo, the groom's parents slaughter livestock (three mares from the groom's parents, one mare from the bride's parents), cook meat, and prepare a feast. When everything is ready, they treat the bride's parents. Totogё bastyrkan uy — orgyo, on which the upper kosma is trimmed with manat68.
Batyrykhan
The hosts of the yurt always sleep to the right of the tёr'a, and the married son (if he does not have his own yurt) sleeps to the left, behind the koshoje.
Zhanyzak
solto
For the installation of the orgyo and preparation of the setting, women demand from the groom orgyo zhabar (gifts for covering the kosmy of the yurt frame for the newlyweds. — B.K., S.G.), toshёk zhabar (gifts for preparing the bed for the newlyweds. — B.K., S.G.). For this, they give one tay and a ram.
solto-bolokbay
In the orgyo before the departure of the young bride from her father's house, the groom's parents slaughter a ram and treat the neighbors. Until this moment (on the eve of the departure), the bride does not enter there.
mesti. Sarybulak
Satyvaldy
buku
Orgyo for the poor is sometimes borrowed for the days of the wedding.
They set up the orgyo the morning after the groom's arrival. They enter it after the feast, which is made by the father of the bride (but the groom's side provides the livestock).
In the orgyo, the young couple continues to live until it becomes dilapidated.
For the construction of the orgyo and the setting, the father of the bride receives gifts, and the women themselves are given a little. In the groom's aul, nothing is given for the installation of the orgyo.
The orgyo is given by the father of the bride. If he is poor, and the groom is rich, then it is his father.
Osh District, Actor Kumbel
Ray Kuvaev
The orgyo (wedding) is first set up in the aul of the bride's father. During the nikah, the bride sits in her father's yurt behind the koshoje, specially hung and belonging to her, while the groom is in the orgb. After the nikah, the koshoje is moved to the orgyo, and at night the bride is brought there on a white kosma to the groom. This is her first arrival in the orgyo, and there are no rituals during this.
The young couple always lives in their orgyo, and the kosmy above them age and wear out naturally, just like in any yurt.
If no orgyo is given for the bride, then the groom's father makes one for him. Such a yurt, prepared for the newlyweds, is set up in case guests arrive, i.e., before it begins to perform its normal functions.
No food is prepared in the orgyo.
Belbashat (near Cholkund)
Toveke
adigine
For the installation of the orgyo in the husband's aul, gifts are given by the father of the groom.
Koshoje
Alamedin, local
Sarybulak Satyvaldy
buku
The koshoje69 is hung in the orgyo to the right (the host's place) at the time of sleep. In the husband's aul, the koshoje is either hung or not hung in the orgyo, as the young couple wishes.
solto-bolokbay
The koshoje hangs in the orgyo until the birth of a child.
r. Bolshoy Kebin
Batyrykhan
The koshoje was borrowed from the Sart people. During the time of the Bukhara Khanate, a husband and wife, Sara and Mat, lived. Mat went to the khan's court, and he was appointed in Andijan, Alay. They had a daughter, very beautiful. Wanting to marry her off as well as possible, Sara hid her from the eyes of people behind the koshoje, which was then among the Bukharans. Before that, the koshoje did not exist among the Kyrgyz70. In the orgyo, the koshoje is hung, which was in the yurt of the father.
Zhanteli
In the orgyo hangs the koshoje, also prepared by the father of the bride. For the marriage ceremony, it is moved to the yurt of the bride's father if there is no curtain of its own there.
Osh District, Actor Kumbel
Ray Kuvaev
The koshoje is made by the father of the bride (or rather, the mother and women of her aul), now one-colored, but in the past made of patches71. Several pieces are made to be given as gifts. For example, the bride has several of them in her dowry and gives them to her husband's sister when she gets married. The koshoje is passed down as an inheritance. It is hung when the father of the groom comes to propose. It is hung either to the right or to the left. They prefer the right side, as to the left of the (tёr'a) are the sabas, cauldron, and food in general.
The koshoje hangs in the orgyo of the newlyweds for six months to a year. With the birth of a child, in any case, the koshoje is removed, although it can be removed even before the birth.
The girl sleeps either in the front place or to the right of the tёr'a, but without a curtain. In general, curtains are not in use. The young couple's curtain hangs for about ten days.
Comments:
62 The tying of the groom and bride before the marriage is known to many peoples, which was supposed to ensure, according to Kagaro E.G., the strength of the marital union (Kagaro E.G. The Composition and Origin of Wedding Rituals // Proceedings of the MAE. L., 1929. Vol. VIII. P. 184. See also: Abramzon S.M. Wedding Rituals of the Kyrgyz // In Memory of M.S. Andreev. Stalinhabad, 1960. P. 35; Toleubaev A.T. Op. cit. P. 35). The pulling apart of the groom and bride (according to the materials of F.A. Fielstrup) by their supporters is apparently a remnant of the struggle between matrilocal and patrilocal tendencies (see note 39).
63 "Wedding water" (nikenit suusu) — water that the mullah, after drinking himself, gives to the newlyweds, witnesses, and all present during the marriage ceremony. According to Kagaro E.G., the joint drinking of water during the marriage ceremony is a ritual known to non-Muslim peoples and is a uniting act for the young (Kagaro E.G. Op. cit. P. 182. See also: Kislyakov N.A. Family and Marriage... P. 185). Sometimes a branch of a fruit tree (fertility magic) or one or two flatbreads are placed on the cup with water.
64 See notes 44, 45.
65 The fire in the newlyweds' yurt was first lit with their own means, but not borrowed from neighbors. After all, the "patron of the family," which was fire, cannot be given (or taken) on loan. Otherwise, apparently, grace should have left the house that gave the fire. Among the Tuvans, the first fire in the newlyweds' yurt was lit by one of the bride's relatives using a fire starter (Potapov L.P. Essays... P. 242, 253), which is, in our opinion, a remnant of matrilocal settlement.
66 The yurt (orgyo) was part of the bride's dowry, which, as noted by many researchers, is a remnant of matrilocal settlement (Kislyakov N.A., Potapov A.P., Lobacheva N.P. et al.). The transition of the yurt to the groom's ownership, as well as most of the bride's dowry (see more on this below), is a sign of changed social relations in the distant past, namely the strengthening of patriarchal positions.
67 Kengesh — council, meeting, ayak ~~ cup, Kengesh ayak — one of the wedding or memorial treats.
68 Manat — a fluffy fabric of artisanal production, like flannel, bumazeya, but expensive, often red; brought from Bukhara (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. P. 515).
69 Koshoje — wedding curtain; was known to many peoples and served as a protective function for the bride. It is not by chance that after the marriage ceremony, the young were taken to the wedding yurt, covered from the eyes of outsiders with this curtain, or in extreme cases with a chapan (robe). Apparently, based on this main purpose of the koshoje, the Khorezm people sewed a blanket from it after the wedding, which covered the cradle of the first child (Snesarev G.P. Op. cit. P. 77, 81). Esbergenov X. and Atamuratov T. believe that the wedding curtain was not only a protective element but also a symbol of the initial dwelling of the newlyweds (Esbergenov X., Atamuratov T. Op. cit. P. 87).
70 This informant's message from F.A. Fielstrup is questionable, as the wedding curtain is known not only to the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan but also to the peoples of other regions, for example, the peoples of Altai (Traditional worldview of the Turks... II. P. 194). By the way, among the Sart — Uzbeks without clan division — the wedding curtain is known as chimyldyq, not koshoje.
71 As is known, patchwork products (kurama or kurok) were widespread in the territory of Central Asia not by chance. Kuroki were considered a protection against the evil eye, the machinations of evil spirits, and, on the other hand, products made from pieces of fabric, for example, a wedding curtain, were supposed to contribute to family growth and fertility: the newlyweds were expected to have as many children, livestock, and property over time as there were pieces in the koshoje.
The patches, according to B.H. Karmysheva's records among the Karategin Kyrgyz, were collected by the girl's mother almost from the day of birth. Most often, patchwork products (which included, in addition to the wedding curtain, pillowcases, children's robes, blankets, and capes for the horse that carried the bride to her husband's house, etc.) were made from the pieces of fabric that were given at various family celebrations (weddings, first laying in the cradle of an infant, etc.), which were believed to have magical properties (for more on kuroks, see the book: Tajiks of Karategin and Darwaza. Dushanbe, 1970. Part P. P. 212).
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