Modern Wedding Rituals of the Sayan-Altai Turks

The main source for this article is the author’s field materials on wedding rituals in the Republics of Altai and Khakassia collected in 2017-2019. The materials from the official websites of the Republic of Tuva media and cultural institutions were also used. Based on the archival materials, an attempt was made to consider the preservation of traditional ceremonies and rituals, as well as transformation processes in marriage and family relations among the Sayan-Altai Turks during the Soviet period. The data consideration and analysis required descriptive and comparative methods. The synchronous and diachronous methods were used to study changes in a structure of the traditional wedding complex of Altaians, Tuvans, and Khakass, as well as to study transformations, adaptations, and inclusion of innovations caused by political, historical, and socio-economic processes and cultural transformations that occurred in life of the Sayan-Altai Turks. The materials about wedding rituals, identified in various sources and literature, made it possible to reconstruct modern rituals as well as to identify their common and special features. The article records an influence of the Soviet reforms on wedding rituals: a new general secular ritual is created during this period. Traditional wedding ceremonies were gradually changing, giving way to the Soviet image, but they did not lose their semantic content. Current materials record general archaic moments reflected in wedding rituals of Sayan-Altai peoples: fire worship, goodwill alkysh, yѲreelder, alrys sozi, a magic circle when newly married go around a yurt 3 times by the sun, the custom to cover a bride’s face, the ritual with a bowl of milk, braiding hair, the rite of passage “enezinin sydinin kaargyzhy / emchek kaargysh”, “syut agy” / “emjek agy”, or “emig kargyzhy” meaning restoration of the bride’s mother’s breast milk. Transformations introduced in modern times are also observed. At weddings, newlyweds and their relatives are dressed in traditional national clothes. In the Altai Republic, in an urban setting, the wedding rituals are practiced in a rented cafe with a traditional ayil (Altai yurt) for all rituals. A tripod hearth is not installed in the modem aiyl, but during a wedding ceremony, a hearth is temporarily or permanently installed. The “ayildatyrgani” ceremony, when young people visiting the parents of a daughter-in-law, has undergone a few changes. Today it is held during matchmaking or immediately after the wedding. Due to the distance, a use of cars in weddings is also a modern innovation. A few other aspects were recorded: performing ritual songs, people refer to paper sheets with written texts; good wishes follow no particular form and sometimes are given in Russian. In observing traditional weddings one can trace the imitation of rituals or their simplified version in museums of Khakassia and Tuva. Nevertheless, museum staff in the modern urbanized conditions is doing a lot to popularize traditional wedding ceremonies and make an attempt to preserve the traditional culture.

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