Chechen Marriage Rules

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The traditional Chechen marriage ceremony, like their other folk customs has always been in its secretive cohesion. It included sing-songs, dance, music, pantomime and narration, which altogether produced a whole spectacle. The elements of the Chechen nuptial ceremony, including horse-riding, bridal introduction into the groom’s home, acquaintance with the bride, her movement to a river, a visit of the future groom to the bride’s relatives and others represent the main features of the Chechen folk theatrics, which manifest a mass creativity, originality, multi-faceted national forms, breadth, and depth of popular fantasy. In general, the playful element spectacle and facial expressions are well developed in the images of a Chechen marriage. This is evident from the very notion of the Chechen marriage known as ‘lovzar’ which means –‘play’. Nuptial ceremonies among Chechens and Ingushis have some differences. With Ingushis it is considered a calamity that s girl gets married without the parents’ blessing, while Chechens see nothing wrong in that. Sometimes, her relatives go this way in order to avoid extra expenses involved in marriage ceremonies. At the appointed time, a groom with friends would go to an appropriate place (the exit spot for the bride) and take away the girl and this is considered to be getting married (marie yakhar) or nuptials (zuda yalor). The bride is taken to the home of a friend, or brother-in-law or a groom’s relative (zuda yossar – the bride’s sojourn) to settle certain formalities. It is necessary to dispatch a man (stag vakhiitar) in order to inform her relatives about her voluntary decision to get married, reconciliation (tam bar), redemption payment (yoikhana or kyovlam) to the girl’s relatives, preparation of the bride for her nuptials (nuskal kechdar) when the parents send her clothing, sow or buy whatever she needs. This lasts for a
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