Serbian Folk Wedding Festival

Every year in September, the Dunjerski Castle in the Bachiki Petrovac Autonomous Region of Serbia begins to become lively. It has always been a traditional place for Slovakia people to hold folk weddings. Thousands of people of Slovakia descended from all over Serbia and neighboring Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia to hold or congratulate their folk weddings. In order to develop tourism and attract foreign tourists, local tourism agencies, with the strong support of the government, take the traditional wedding customs here as the theme and integrate fashion styles, such as fashion shows, food festivals, cake festivals, wine festivals and other events, and designate September as a folk wedding festival.

Vladimir Turan, mayor of Bachiki Petrovac, pointed out that turning folk wedding activities into rural tourism projects not only inherits and carries forward the customs and customs of ethnic minorities in Serbia, but also promotes the development of national tourism, and in turn drives the prosperity, construction and development of rural areas and agriculture, which is a beautiful undertaking that benefits the country and the people.

According to incomplete statistics, there are about 60,000 Slovakia ethnic groups in Serbia, mainly living in the Bachiki Petrovac Autonomous Region, Vojvodina Autonomous Province in northern Serbia. They follow their own national customs and traditional marriage customs.

According to the rules of marriage customs in Slovakia, before marriage between young men and women, the in-laws must be "face-to-face", that is, the parents of the bride-to-be bring their daughters, and the parents of the bride-to-be bring their sons together. The woman's parents first pretended to be angry and told the man's family that they didn't want their daughter to marry because she was still young and worried that her daughter would suffer hardship and be ignored when she married the man, etc. Finally, they asked her if she really wanted to marry the man. Later, the girl, accompanied by her parents, went to the future in-law's house to see the house. Although they knew the man's family well before, they still had to "inspect" it carefully inside and out.

The engagement ceremony is generally presided over by the godfather or local leader. The host first presents a prayer book to the bridegroom and bride, describing the significance of marriage and religious rituals such as the need for men and women to be loyal and trust each other. The bride-to-be then hands the groom-to-be a scarf, and the two shake hands and exchange engagement rings.

Ethnic people in Slovakia believe that Thursday is an auspicious day to prepare for the wedding. Therefore, the woman should choose a woman who cannot be a widow) to "hide" in the bride's dowry on this day. For example, dove feathers symbolize love and honesty; vanilla and caramel can drive away evil spirits; coins can attract wealth and treasure, etc. After everything is put away, let a little boy sit on the goose down quilt for a while, implying that the bride will have a son in the future. In addition, you cannot beat or lift the eiderdown quilt with your hands, otherwise your husband will beat his wife in the future. At the same time, the man's family, godfather and mother are also busy organizing the marriage to marry the bride. The autumn and winter seasons every year are the peak seasons for local Slovakia people to get married, and weddings are usually held on Sundays. The carefully prepared bride's dowry will be carried to the groom's home in a large flowered wooden box on Sunday morning, and then the couple and guests will be married in a specific place.

At the wedding, the groom must present Catholic rosary beads and prayer books to the bride; three keys tied with a chastity belt to symbolize the bride's purity and elegance; a fur hat and a silver wedding ring. The bride gave the groom a colorful floral shirt embroidered with gold rims and a ring. Afterwards, the newlyweds drank clinking glasses rather than cross-drinking glasses). Immediately afterwards, the attendant came forward with two plates, handed the plate containing two small pieces of caramel to the newlyweds in his right hand, and carried the other empty plate behind his back with his left hand. After the bride and groom finished eating the fudge, the attendant quickly smashed the empty plate behind him to the ground and smashed it into pieces. It is said that this means that the two of them will start a new sweet life, and everything that has passed is over.

At the wedding ceremony, the most eye-catching thing was the traditional Slovakia bride's wedding dress. The unique embroidered skirt was exquisitely crafted and colorful, and the blouse and headdress were decorated with pearls, gold and silver ornaments. A set of such a wedding dress weighs about 7 kilograms, and the more expensive the girl, the more ornaments there are on the wedding dress, the heavier the weight will be.