Wedding horns are honking (not for me, though, so don’t get too excited)

Friday night I attended my first Kazakh wedding! I’ve been here for two years (almost), but I hadn’t been invited to a Kazakh wedding until then. The invitation came from a rather unlikely place, too. When Melissa, Tyler and I were on our way to Aktau, we were in a car full of people who we later learned were on their way to a wedding. I had been speaking quite a bit with Azamat, who I thought was just one of the guests. Turns out he was actually the groom! AND he is from Pavlodar. His wife is from Aktau, and the group was all going there for the first wedding ceremony. Several weeks later – just a few days after my planned return to site – they would have the wedding ceremony in Pavlodar. Azamat invited all three of us, but I was the only one able to attend.

It was a blast! I’d been to one wedding here before, but it wasn’t Kazakh. However, like the first wedding, the reception involved lots of eating, drinking, toast and games. The new addition was the betashar. Essentially, this is the unveiling ceremony for the bride. At one point I knew some culturally significant and interesting details about this ceremony, but I’m afraid they slip my mind at the moment. At any rate, the bride’s face is hidden and lots of friends and relatives are asked to come and greet the new bride – they also leave some money. In the past, the money went to the couple, but now I have heard that the dombura player who facilitates the ceremony gets the cash. Beats me. So after lots and lots of people greet the bride and leave their cash she’s finally unveiled for the first time (or in our case the first time in Pavlodar) and the celebration begins.

It was a blast. I got to reconnect with a lot of the people I’d met on the train, meet some new people and just generally had a lot of fun. After I gave my toast, though, things got interesting. More and more people were getting introduced to the American. I’m used to causing a splash when I go places just because of the whole novelty of my being a foreigner, but I felt bad thinking that my presence might actually be taking away some of the emphasis that should have been place on Azamat and Saya, his wife. No one seemed offended, so hopefully it was OK.

I know it was a quick overview with sparse detail, but I just wanted to mention it. And to say a big thank you to Azamat , Saya and their families for their generosity and hospitality. I wish you all the best!