Circassian Wedding Ceremony Video and Photography

Spring is in the air in Adyghea. Down the city’s main road, there is the triumphant sound of … car horns? A band of compact cars goes whizzing by with bright green Adyghe flags waving out the windows. Young Adyghe men hang out the windows laughing, hooting and hollering. They’ve kidnapped the bride! This ancient tradition is revisited on the streets of this modern city just about every week in the spring and summer. The bridegroom and friends “capture” the young lady, and take her to the bridegroom’s home, sometimes truly to the bride’s surprise. In the past, this was a means of elopement. If the bride’s parents objected to the marriage, the union could have led to a blood feud. Now, .it is usually a nod to tradition and an official proposal.

A bride moves in with her in-laws, but is never allowed to see her father-in-law or other male relatives on her husband’s side of the family. So a separate entrance into the house is built and an intricate dance of hiding in various parts of the house and moving from room to room is carried on in order to keep tradition. One of our Circassian friends who is a teacher recently opened his home to his grandson's new bride. We can’t help but smile as we think of them meandering around the house trying to avoid one another! Please pray that this newly married couple would seek God’s face and boldly follow Jesus. Plead for this family of three generations living together in one home. Pray that this verse would be fulfilled in their lives, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.”