First Azerbaijani Wedding

October 20, 2012

Bride and groom with my host mama and her siblings.

Last week I went to my first Azerbaijani wedding. A wedding in Azerbaijan is called a “toy,” and it is the most important day in a man and a women’s life. There are so many traditions that surround a toy and the celebration is something that people are constantly talking about. My host sister is consistently mentioning things about what she wants for her wedding, such as her hair style, the restaurant where the celebration will be and the car she will be driving in. It is easy to see how many people get married here because of the wedding car ritual. The streets are filled with cars that have been decorated with large lacey bows, (usually red, which symbolizes virginity), and most men have even tricked out there cars to do fancy tricks and light shows during the procession. The bride and groom drive around town with a huge procession of loud cars with fancy lights and lots of lace until the bride and groom arrive at the celebration. At the toy I was at the bride and groom did not look very happy. They sat in the front of the room at a table that overlooked the party and guests came up to the bride and groom all evening to take pictures with them. During the party the food was the main event. There must have been 15 meat courses, which is a rarity in the country because meat is so expensive. I took advantage of the barbequed chicken and beef and there was even some normal tasting cheese. I have been lacking cheese that doesn’t taste sour, salty or overly chewy. Alas the toy provided cheese that tasted similar to feta and cheddar!

The other main event of the wedding was the dancing. Men and women do not dance together, unless they are married, in which case they will stand near each other. However dancing is very important for both genders. The dancing is still very conservative and all people dance the traditional Azerbaijani dance, which includes a lot of hand swirling and moving your feet back and forth. The men dance with their arms straight out to their sides and do a lot of intense foot work. The music was beautiful, there are so many instruments ive never seen before being played and the voiced are so intense, it’s pretty amazing.

The women dancing at the wedding.

During the wedding all of the single women put henna on the palms of their hands. This symbolizes that you will have good luck finding a fiancé, which seems to be very important to women in their twenties. Other traditions including a fire dance, which revolved around a flaming plate of plouf, a saffron rice dish which must relate to the meaning of Azerbaijan (the land of fire).