Bulgaria A Muslim village perpetuates a mysterious nuptial rite

(Ribnovo) Behind silver garlands and her white makeup dotted with flowers, Nefie Eminkova keeps her eyelids closed during the wedding procession.

In the mountainous village of Ribnovo in Bulgaria, the 21-year-old celebrates an ancestral ritual, which the Muslim Pomak minority has managed to preserve despite the assimilation policies endured during communism.

This colorful tradition lasts two full days, culminating in the painting of the bride's face.

Out of sight, this sequence called "gelina" consists of applying a thick white layer before sticking multicolored sequins on it.

"We wanted to get married in the local fashion," says the bride, who will only open her eyes after the imam's blessing.

“My parents did not have the chance to have such a ceremony. I chose this ancient ritual to please them,” adds her fiancé Schaban Kiselov.

Visibly successful bet: “they seem happier than us! “, smiles this 24-year-old Bulgarian, whose casual outfit contrasts with the finery of his companion.

“Strong resistance”

Many inhabitants of this locality of 3000 souls say they are proud to have restored these traditional weddings, forgotten elsewhere.

Under the communist regime, which collapsed in 1989, the power, already hostile to the dominant Orthodox Christianity, was very hard on Muslims.

He went so far as to forcibly change their names to replace them with Slavic surnames "in the 1970s", explains Mihail Ivanov, author of a large study on the Pomaks.

These descendants of Bulgarians who were Islamized during the Ottoman domination (14 ^th -19 ^th century) suffered particularly.

"A first attempt at assimilation took place in Ribnovo in 1964 and came up against strong resistance", underlines the expert, former adviser to the presidency on the subject of minorities.

About 200,000 Pomaks live in Bulgaria today, but only this village in the Rhodope Mountains and another in the south of the country, Draginovo, have revived this winter tradition.

Bank notes

This is undoubtedly linked to the “isolated” geographical position of Ribnovo, “the fact that the Muslim community lives there withdrawn into itself”, analyzes Evguenia Ivanova, professor of ethnology.

"Nobody knows since when this ceremony exists exactly," she notes, adding that it is also practiced in Turkey.

Like "the veil of the bride in the Christian religion", the painting masks the features of the young woman who will only be revealed in the evening, when her husband washes her face with milk.

Before this ritual, the party is punctuated by the sounds of the drum, dances and a profusion of food – alcohol is prohibited – while the couple walks hand in hand decked out in banknotes.

It also exhibits, on the street, the dowry which includes “everything the new family will need”, explains Nefie. Newborn knitted socks in bed ready for the bride and groom, next to a brand new TV or a set of kitchen utensils.

Soon she will be moving to Germany, where Schaban runs a small parquet laying business. Like many other Bulgarians, he had to leave his native land to seek better fortune in Western Europe.