Turkmen Wedding

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend a Turkmen wedding. It was the brother of a friend of a group of people I was with, and it is apparently tradition to invite large numbers of people to the reception portion of the wedding, so I was able to go with. It was one of the most unique experiences I have had so far, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

We first took a gypsy taxi across town to the event hall. We walked past the ribbon and bow festooned car and into the entrance to a large hall draped with red and orange fabric decorations. To our immediate left was a raised dais with the bride and groom, and a huge picture of the current president behind them, proudly framed by matching wedding colors. It is a very elaborate display, and relatives and friends were going up all night to take pictures behind the bride and groom.

To the right of the dais was a music area with a full Turkmen band that began playing and singing. The music was very loud, and we all became rather good at "telephone" and sign language, even though we sat near the back. One of the other women in my group and myself were the only two not wearing full Turkmen dress. There was color everywhere, from the beautiful, hand sewn dresses with their elaborate embroidery, to the head scarves and colors from the wedding itself.

We all sat down at the table after easing our way through the forty or fifty tables that were set around the room. Food already filled the table, and waitresses, also in traditional garb, began pouring juices and sodas for each person. We all started to fill our plates with the salads and vegetables in front of us. The next couple of paragraphs are mainly about the food, because I can't believe how much there was.

Next came these little crystal goblets, and they were filled with vodka for each person around the table. What one does not know when you first sit down is that these are never ending goblets. You will quickly see how this can become a problem. Everyone makes a toast for the bride and groom, you drink the voda, waitress lady fills up the glass before you realize it, someone else at the table proposes a toast, you drink the vodka, repeat. I learned very, very quickly that a quarter mini glass per toast was preferable, especially with the "helpful" waitress filling it up when I wasn't looking. Good thing I like vodka. And began pouring water in my glass.

Anyway, back to the food. So there are a lot of salads on the table, and then they start bringing out more courses. There is the meat/fried potatoes course, the shashlik course, and more that I can't remember because there was so much food. It is all delicious, and I was able to try more dishes from Turkmenistan. They use a lot of produce, which is really, really good and they have lots of natural flavors, that I'm not sure I can describe.

While we are eating, dancing started. Turkmen dancing seems to involve a lot of people standing in a circle while moving back and forth to the side and putting their hands up. One or two people enter the circle and dance a little more energetically. I'm not trying to be funny, I just am not particularly good at decribing dance (you should hear me describe ballet). It's actually beautiful because of the colors, but there is no partner dancing. We were brought up to the dance floor (I'm not much of a dancer) and asked to participate.

But first, speeches. One of the women in my group was asked to give a speech for the bride and groom. She was friends/co-workers with the groom's brother. She said a few words on camera, as they film everything, and then we had to participate in a special dance. I was confused, but then an older lady came around giving us towels. Someone explained that the towels are meant to provide good luck and positive emotions to those who receive them. Towels are handed out, hundreds of them, to all of the guests on the dance floor. Guests then keep them and bring that positive energy home from the wedding.

The dancing, speeches, and recording went on for another couple of hours. We kept eating, toasting, and being brought back onto the dance floor. Kids ran around, just like any wedding reception, and folks looked on. I did find out that this was an arranged marriage, which was interesting. Both seems content with everything, though, and the family was very happy, if the speeches were any indication.

We actually left fairly early, before more courses were brought out because it was late and all of us had to work the next day. By fairly early, I mean 10pm and it started around 7. I did not give the wedding justice with this description, but I hope it gave you glimpse as to what it's like.