A Turkish Wedding

How many of you have been to a wedding? Probably most of you.  Weddings are common.  How many of you have been to a Turkish wedding?  Probably none of you have.  But that is okay.  I am going to talk about ‘KINA,’ a very interesting Turkish ceremony that takes place before the wedding.  This ceremony almost always takes place outdoors.  One of my friends got married this summer, and as she lives next door, the Kina was celebrated in the field in front of our house.  (The wedding itself usually takes place in a wedding hall in town.)  I will describe the night to you.

In the afternoon the men of the household set up lots of benches, made out of bricks and wooden planks outside in a large circle leaving one opening.  Speakers and lights are also erected.  The guests begin to arrive between seven and eight. There are probably about 200 to 300 people there.  When it gets dark the benches are filled and the lights and a band of men with drums and turkish musical instruments begin playing. For a short amount of time the bride and the bridegroom dance together with several others, then the women and children dance together for a long, long time.  A few bold young men dance, too.  The men sit around the sidelines and smoke.  They don’t dance until later.  The dance steps are very different from American style dancing.  The women hold their arms up like in the picture below, and snap their fingers.  They move their feet just barely up and down.

Here is a picture of the bride, dancing. It’s kind of funny because this bride would never dress like this (showing her bare arms) normally because it is not thought to be modest, but they make exceptions for weddings.

 Then the real kina ceremony begins. The bride sits down on a chair in the middle of the circle and a beautiful red scarf is draped over her face and head. The women and girls stand around her and hold the wedding cake, (usually very flat) over her head and sing a sad song about leaving her family. (In Turkey the bride goes to live in the house of the bridegroom’s parents.)  When the bride doesn’t cry, onion is sometimes secretly used to make her eyes water!  Then the women spread kina (henna), a dark powdery substance mixed with water to make a paste, onto their hands.  When it is washed off it leaves a red mark for several days. 

The kina ceremony being held.

The gifts are then given to the bride and a man announces what they are and who they are from through the loud speaker.  Usually it is gold.  Each family gives one or two real gold bracelet bands.  The bands sort of pile up on her arm.  Sometimes there are so many that they they go as far as her elbow.  Also, people pin gold coins to the dress or give money.

At this point we usually go home since it is about ten-thirty, but the kina continues until about midnight.  Then the men begin to dance together as the women scatter.

The wedding takes place the following day.

We have been to three so far and I thought they were very neat.

-Legolas