Worn on one of the most important days in their lives, the hundreds of bride and groom costumes in Anatolia all have ceremonial significance.
The bridal couples of this earth are like the flowers and fruit of the Tree of Life. And the wedding celebrations held, gifts presented and feasts that are spread have always taken place in an atmosphere of social festivity. This is the ceremony honoring the legal union of man and woman. The bride’s and groom’s costumes so painstakingly prepared according to the customs and traditions of old were permeated with sacred beliefs from head to toe. With their elaborate decorations, they made an enchanting and impressive appearance. So much so that from a tender age girls grew up dreaming of becoming brides, and boys of becoming grooms.
The wedding celebration, which lasts for forty days and forty nights, and the procession of the bride’s trousseau became the stuff of legend and fairy tale. Seven hundred years ago, for example, the stunningly beautiful and delicate only daughter of the Germiyanid dynasty of Kütahya traveled to Bursa to become the bride of an Ottoman prince. Together with her trousseau, which was carried by forty camels, the entourage made its way to Bursa in an ‘epic’ wedding celebration that went on for forty days and forty nights. Starting out from the Aegean, this wedding was celebrated all the way to the Marmara with the participation of the local people along the way. And thus the Germiyanid Principality was conjoined with the Ottoman. The story of this historic and fairytale wedding is still retold today with great fervor.
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