伝統の「冬の結婚式」 ブルガリアのカラフルな祝宴

【リブノボＡＦＰ＝時事】鮮やかな色とたくさんの花であふれ、祝宴とダンスのお祭り騒ぎとなった花嫁ネフィ・エミンコバさん（２１）と新郎のシャバン・キセロフさん（２４）の結婚式──。（写真は花嫁の化粧を施されたネフィ・エミンコバさん。ブルガリアのリブノボ村で）
　だが、ブルガリアの少数派イスラム教徒「ポマク」のネフィさんは、そのどれも見ることができない。
　２人の結婚式は、南部のロドピ山脈に抱かれた小さなリブノボ村で、「冬の結婚式」のしきたりにのっとって執り行われた。この伝統の結婚式は共産主義政権時代に強制的に廃止されたが、１９８９年の政権崩壊を受けて復活した。
　婚礼は２日間にわたって行われる。豪華な「嫁入り道具」の披露で始まり、新婦の顔に「特別な化粧」を施す２日目の行事で終わる。
　ネフィさんに「特別な化粧」を施したのは、年配の親類女性２人。顔を白く塗り、その上から色とりどりのスパンコールやビーズなどで装飾した。
　イスラム教指導者による祝福の後、新婦は初めて目を開けることが許される。新婦の顔の化粧は、新居に戻ってから新郎がミルクで洗い流す。
　ポマクの人々は、オスマン帝国時代に強制的にイスラム教に改宗させられたスラブ民族だ。１９７０年代の共産主義政権時代には、結婚式や割礼儀式とともに華やかな正装をあきらめざるを得なかった。
　今日、ブルガリアには約２０万人のポマクの人々が住んでいるが、この伝統的な結婚式が受け継がれているのはリブノボともう一つ別の南部の村だけとなっている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/01/20-11:23）

The marriage of Nefie Eminkova, 21, and her fiance Schaban Kiselov, 24, is an extravaganza of bright colours, flowers, feasting and dancing.
But the bride, who comes from Bulgaria's Pomak minority, can see none of it.
Her eyes must remain tightly closed until a Muslim priest blesses the couple.
The pair are following an age-old traditional winter wedding rite that their tiny community nestled in the southern Rhodope mountains was forced to abandon during communism but has revived since the fall of the regime in 1989.
The ritual spans two whole days, starting with a lavish display of the bride's dowry.
It comprises everything you can think of that a new family might need, Nefie explains.
Handmade socks, crocheted baby blankets and bedding are hung out on wooden scaffolding in the street, next to a fully-made marriage bed and a television set.
- Silk flower garlands -
The culmination of the wedding comes at the end of the second day with the gelina -- the painting of the bride's face.
In private and away from prying male eyes, two older women relatives cover Nefie's face with a thick layer of white face paint and then decorate it with multicoloured sequins.
They cover her hair with a red headscarf and frame her painted doll-like face with silk flower garlands and streaks of shiny tinsel, making her unrecognisable.
She is then presented to her husband-to-be clad in traditional attire of dark crimson baggy pants, multicoloured apron and bodice and henna-painted fingertips contrasting with his simple blue jeans and black blazer.
Nefie holds up a hand mirror and secretly takes a peek at her face. She will be all?wed to open her eyes wide only after the imam blesses the new couple and her husband washes her face with milk in their new home.
Plenty of food and dancing to music from zurnas and drums ensures the success of the marriage festivities but there is no alcohol.
- Revival of banned tradition -
That's the way people here get married and we also like to have it this way, Nefie tells AFP before the gelina face painting.
Nefie and Schaban will leave Ribnovo, a mountainous village of around 3,000 inhabitants, in the spring for Germany, where the young man has a small flooring business.
Like many other Bulgarians, he was forced abroad in search of work and a better income and has only returned briefly for the wedding.
My parents did not have a chance to have such a wedding and I decided to do it the old way in order to make them happy, they look even happier than we are, Schaban says.
Bulgaria's communist regime from after World War II until 1989 was especially hostile to the country's sizeable Muslim minority.
The Pomaks -- Slavs converted to Islam during Ottoman rule -- were particularly oppressed and forced to abandon their colourful attire as well as their wedding and circumcision rites during the 1970s.
There are around 200,000 Pomaks living in Bulgaria today but only Ribnovo and one other southern village maintain the old wedding rites.
This is thanks to Ribnovo's geographical isolation and the capsulation of its community, Ethnology Professor Evgenia Ivanova explains.
And while only a handful of weddings are held every winter in Ribnovo, the same Muslim ritual is also observed in Bulgaria's southeastern neighbour Turkey.