Marriage Arrangements In Central Asia

F amily in Central Asia           young family depends on groom’s    starts with match making        character, his parent’s and        arrangements. A person who      relative’s life experiences and    knows well both bride’s and           the marriage arranger herself. By  groom’s family takes                  taking the responsibility of       responsibility of arranging their     match making person has to know    marriage. Sometimes up to 3 or 4      everything about bride’s and       people participate in this very       groom’s families and as well as    important task. Most of the time      bride and groom themselves         it is an elder woman who has the      otherwise it is considered a big   wisdom gained from prior              sin to arrange an unhappy          experiences of arranging              marriage for both families. Those  marriages, less commonly it is        people must understand that well   done by the parents of two young      being and future of the young      people.                               family is in their hands.                                                                                  Person who arranges the marriage      People of Central Asia have a      chooses the bride or groom from       saying, “those who have a bride,   two very respectable and educated     have the caprices”, marriage       families. It is a very difficult      arrangers visit bride’s homes      process, description of the bride     several times before getting an    to be or groom to be must be          agreement for the proposed         accurate, well presented and          marriage. Then marriage arrangers  trustworthy.                          return to groom’s home, they are                                         greeted with a question, “wolf or  In many Central Asian counties        fox?” If they brought the good     those who arrange the marriage        news the answer is “wolf”, and if  visit homes of future bride on        the bride has not agreed to the    behalf of groom and his family        marriage the answer is “fox”.      and propose marriage. Future of                                          Match makers visit the desired        not agree to the marriage from     bride’s home several times in         first visit of the match makes     order to obtain her agreement to      even if they were in favor of it.  the marriage. When the bride          First bride’s family had to show   gives her positive answer to the      its’ pride and give an             marriage, the match maker “breaks     impressions of their daughter as   the bread” to announce the            hard to get bride, which would     engagement.                           bring brides’ and her family’s                                          status higher.                     In ancient Central Asia the match                                        makes couldn’t come into brides       In present time the process of     home to propose the marriage          match making became easier in      without informing the bride’s         some parts of Central Asia, young  family. The match makes or            women and men meet each other in   sometimes mother of the groom         their own and then ask their       came early in the morning when        parents for permission to the      everyone was sleeping to the          marriage or their parents or       bride’s home and swept the floor      immediate family members play the  near the entrance door to the         role of match makers. They tell   bride’s home that would show the      each other about their families,   bride’s parents that there is a       relatives and other background     family who is interested in           information. A lot of attention    proposing marriage to their           is paid to how neighbors describe  daughter. Next bride’s family         the bride or groom and references  would start to prepare for the        from school or work.               visit of the match maker, by                                             trying to find out from which         Bride and groom are allowed to     family the groom is and learn         have few dates before giving       more about the groom and his          their final agreement for the      family. Parents of the bride did      engagement. Those dates are very   important as they give young          able to make a better decision     people an opportunity to find out     about the possibility of future    more information about each           marriage.                          other, such as their views on                                            different aspects of life, their      Marriage arrangement is an         personalities and interests.          ancient and well respected         Based on those dates they are         tradition of Central Asia.         About the Author Julia Feydman, has always been fascinated by the history and culture of Central Asian countries. Over time, her passion as well as many memorable trips to the area have grown into a successful U.S. based travel agency - East Site, Inc. Central Asia travel is one of the major routes her company specializes in. Visit her travel website East-Site.com today and discover Central Asia for yourself! Published At: www.Isnare.com