By Tsvetelia Ilieva
RIBNOVO, Bulgaria (Reuters) - Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, willmarry with her eyes closed and her face painted white, dottedwith bright sequins. She lives 'at the end of the world',tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely Christian Bulgaria.
The remote village of Ribnovo, set on a snowy mountainsidein southwest Bulgaria, has kept its traditional winter marriageceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution,followed by poverty that forced many men to seek work abroad.
"Other nearby villages tried the traditional marriage afterthe ban was lifted, but then the custom somehow died away --women wanted to be modern," said Ali Mustafa Bushnak, 61, whosedaughter came to watch Fikrie's wedding.
"Maybe we are at the end of the world. Or people in Ribnovoare very religious and proud of their traditions."
Some experts say clinging to the traditional weddingceremony is Ribnovo's answer to the persecutions of the past.
Bulgaria is the only European Union nation where Muslims'share is as high as 12 percent. The communist regime, which didnot tolerate any religious rituals, tried to forcibly integrateMuslims into Bulgaria's largely Christian Orthodox population,pressing them to abandon wearing their traditional outfits andadopt Slavonic names.
The wedding ritual was resurrected with vigour among thePomaks -- Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule andnow make up 2.5 percent of Bulgaria's 7.8 million population --after communism collapsed in 1989.
But today it is still performed only in the closed societyof Ribnovo and one other village in the Balkan country. Youngmen return from abroad to the crisp mountain snows, just forthe winter weddings.
People in Ribnovo identify themselves more by theirreligion, as Muslims, than by their ethnicity or nationality,and the wedding ceremony is an expression of their piety. Thevillage has 10 clerics and two mosques for 3,500 inhabitants.
DOWRY ON DISPLAY
Fikrie's family have been laboriously piling up her dowrysince she was born -- mostly handmade knit-work, quilts,coverlets, sheets, aprons, socks, carpets and rugs.
On a sunny Saturday winter morning they hang the items on awooden scaffolding, 50 meters long and three meters high,erected specially for the occasion on the steep, muddy road ofscruffy two-storey houses that leads to her home.
Nearly everyone in the village comes to inspect theofferings: Fikrie's tiny homeyard has been turned into ashowroom for the furniture and household appliances the bridehas to provide for her new household.
The girl and her husband-to-be, Moussa, 20, then lead atraditional horo dance on the central square, joined by most ofthe village's youth.
But the highlight of the ceremony, the painting of thebride's face, comes at the end of the second day.
In a private rite open only to female in-laws, Fikrie'sface is covered in thick, chalky white paint and decorated withcolourful sequins. A long red veil covers her hair, her head isframed with tinsel, her painted face veiled with and silveryfilaments.
Clad in baggy pants and bodice shimmering in all thecolours of the rainbow, the bride is presented by her futurehusband, her mother and her grandmother to the waiting crowd.
Fikrie is not permitted to open her eyes wide until aMuslim priest blesses the young couple. Alcohol is forbidden atthe wedding receptions and sex before marriage is taboo.
BANNED RITUALS
Ethnographers say it is hard to date the bridal paintingritual, as the communist regime did not encourage studies intominority ethnic and religious groups.
"It is very likely that it is an invented tradition. It'stheir way to express who they are," said Margarita Karamihova,an associate professor at the Ethnography Institute of theBulgarian Academy of Science.
Experts say Pomaks had identity problems and faced morechallenges than the majority of Muslims in Bulgaria, who areethnic Turks.
"In the 1960s they would ban Islamic music at weddings,then they would not allow traditional clothes, and in the1980s, the whole traditional Pomak wedding was banned," saidmunicipality mayor, Ahmed Bashev, born in Ribnovo.
Ribnovo's inhabitants used to make a living from tobaccoand agriculture, but low incomes in the poorest EU countryforced men to start seeking jobs in cities in Bulgaria or inwestern Europe -- not least to raise money for a wedding.
Outside influences have been slow to reach Ribnovo andyoung people rarely marry an outsider. Another Fikrie,19-year-old Fikrie Inuzova, suggested the women, for whom theacceptable bridal age is up to 22, are not in a rush tomodernize.
"My brother wants to travel, see the world... It'sdifferent for men. They can do whatever. I want to stay hereand marry."
(Editing by Ralph Boulton and Sara Ledwith)
