The Rites of Marriage in Bulgaria - Part III

Traditionally the new family expects gifts from the guests. At the end of the wedding, everybody dances the last wedding "horo". If the best man leaves the party, that is a sign for the rest of the guests to leave. The best man goes back to his house and the musicians follow him all the way back.

It must be remembered that the wedding rituals described above have different variations in different parts of Bulgaria. Many others existed but are now lost.

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Some Other Rituals:

Clothing:

In some regions the bride is dressed by her friends. She wears her finest clothes and is covered with wreaths of flowers. The colour of her dress was in correspondence with the colours worn in that particular region of the country ( different regions had different colour markings and one could tell from which region a person came by looking at the clothes ). It might be red, green or yellow, sometimes black covered with golden embroidery.

You can find some very interesting examples of traditional embroidery here: http://www.bulgarianembroidery.com/index...

And here you can take a look at some costumes and reserve books on the subject: http://hs41.iccs.bas.bg/exh/exhib.htm

And here you can actually ORDER your own costume -men's or women's wear: http://www.balkanfolk.com/p/folk_costume...

In some regions, the veil was almost entirely covered with flowers, wrought iron jewellery and wreaths of small coins. At the beginning of the 20th century, the veil has been replaced by less heavy fabrics.

The Bride's House:

In some parts of the country, the wedding-guests on the side of the bridegroom had to take off the roof of the bride's house a flag. The company was supposed to show skill and humor in performing those exploits.

Besides, the bridegroom was sometimes expected to present his future wife with shoes, which she wore at her wedding. Those shoes are called "tcarvuli" and were made of leather. They did not keep warm and one had to wear very thick stickings to keep warm.

The Fireplace and the Silence:

Inside her husband's house, the young wife bowed to the fireplace and dropped in it the bread she took from her mother-in-law. Sometimes the young wife was given to carry a little boy - so that she would give birth to a child, preferably at least one boy.

For some time the bride had to keep silent in the presence of her father-in-law and her husband's brothers. In the distant past this "silence" would last for

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