What may play a greater role in the Central Asian people’s lives than traditions and customs? The traditions and customs are peoples “manual� based on which they communicate with each other. The Uzbeks have many different traditions and customs. This time, I want to write about the wedding traditions of the Uzbeks.

The weddings play a great social, economic and even political role in Uzbeks life. Proverbs and sayings like Yetti mahallaga toy qilamiz* or Topganlarimiz toylarga buyursin** shows the importance of weddings in social life. It is a great event for which people get ready during their entire life. It begins from the early beginning – when child is born.

When the child is born, parents begin their preparation for the wedding of their offspring. For example, if it is a girl, a mother starts saving money and buying different stuff like dishes, fabric, jewelry, clothes, etc, for the sep (dowry) of the girl. It continues till the girl becomes mature enough to get married. Usually, the age of “enough maturityâ€? is from 18 to 22-23. If the girl gets older than 23, she is considered to be a qari qiz, which means she is over the hill. When the girl finally gets married, all her sep – mainly her dresses, gowns, and some other things that can be hung – is demonstrated on the walls of one or more rooms in grooms house. The bride’s social status in her new family in most cases depends on the quantity and quality of her sep. Groom’s mother boasts to seven mahallas (an expression to exaggerate) if the sep of her daughter-in-law is big and qualitative (not too many non quality products mainly from China). But if not, the bride is criticized by women from groom’s side, especially by qaynona, her mother-in-law. Many girls’ lives have turned into a hell after the marriage, because their sep was not good enough. Rich seps has become a tradition that many people follow, though, at the same time, most people are against it. There are even proverbs about it, like Sepli kelin olguncha, epli kelin ol***, that shows that bride’s personal qualities should be more valued than her rich sep. However, the Uzbeks, as well as other Central Asian ethnic groups, are afraid to go against traditions, because it usually results in mass criticism of the person(s) who violated the traditions – “social laws.â€?

If a child is a boy, his father plants trees, as when he grows up, they will build a house for him using them as building materials. It is done in rural areas. In the cities, it is a little different. Though, one thing is the same everywhere – the boy learns some profession, so that in future, when he gets married, he will be able to feed his family. It is little easier with boys. Parents do not have to worry about the dowry. All what they have to worry is to save money to the wedding. Some Uzbeks want to do a wedding to seven mahallas and spend too much money. If they don’t have that much money, they borrow it. There is a proverb Qarz uziladi, hotin yonga qoladi****. However, it does not end well many times. Nowadays, a lot of people are distorting the traditions, as they want to do a really rich wedding that shows to others how powerful and rich they are. It is sad, but the rich weddings determine people’s social status in the society.

There is also one not less important thing in this complex process – bordi-keldi, a communication (relationship) between two sides which is done mainly by women. It is really important to play the roles correctly. Bride’s side must respect groom’s side, and the groom’s side must accept this respect and respond in the same way.

The wedding is a really complex process of a range of social interconnections. Therefore, it is really difficult to cover them all in one post. What I wrote above is the general information. In my future posts, I will try to cover other minor details of this wonderful event – wedding.

* Directly translated as “We will do a wedding and call seven mahallas (community)�. It is usually said when someone plans to do wedding and wants to show the importance of wedding for him/her.
** Directly translated as “May everything we earn be spend to weddings�. It is usually said when people pray the Almighty. In this case, weddings are equalized with happiness.
*** Directly translated as “Take a bride with good personal qualities than a bride with qualitative sep“.
**** Directly translated as “The debts will be paid, but you will have a wife�. It means that one should not worry about debts – they will be paid, but wife will stay.