(Ribnovo) Behind silver garlands and her white make-up strewn with flowers, Nefie Eminkova keeps her eyelids closed during the wedding procession.
Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
In the mountainous village of Ribnovo in Bulgaria, the 21-year-old celebrates an ancestral ritual, which the Pomak Muslim minority has managed to preserve despite the policies of assimilation endured during the days of communism.
This colorful tradition lasts for two full days, culminating in the painting of the bride’s face.
Hidden from view, this sequence called “gelina” consists of applying a thick white layer before gluing multicolored glitter on it.
“We wanted to get married in the local fashion”, confides the bride, who will not open her eyes until after the blessing of the imam.
“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 his companion’s finery.
“Strong resistance”
Many inhabitants of this locality of 3000 souls say they are proud to have re-established these traditional weddings, forgotten elsewhere.
Under the communist regime, which collapsed in 1989, power, already hostile to mainstream Orthodox Christianity, was very harsh on Muslims.
He went so far as to forcefully 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 rule (14e-19e century) suffered particularly.
“A first assimilation attempt took place in Ribnovo in 1964 and met with strong resistance”, underlines the expert, former adviser to the presidency on the subject of minorities.
Around 200,000 Pomaks live in Bulgaria today, but only this village in the Rhodope Mountains and another in the south of the country, Draguinovo, 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 folded in on itself”, analyzes Evguenia Ivanova, professor of ethnology.
“No one knows how long this ceremony has existed 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 which will only be revealed in the evening, when her husband will wash 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 walk hand in hand decked out in banknotes.
It also exhibits, on the street, the dowry which includes “everything the new family will need”, details Nefie. Knitted newborn socks in bed ready for the bride and groom, next to a brand new television or a set of kitchen utensils.
Soon she will be moving to Germany, where Schaban runs a small parquet laying company. Like many other Bulgarians, he had to leave his native land to seek better fortune in Western Europe.