Face paint and folklore transform Chicago bride for traditional wedding in Kosovo

DONJE LJUBINJE, Kosovo, Aug 9 (Reuters) – For Bosniaks within the Kosovan village of Donje Ljubinje, a marriage ceremony is an artwork kind.

Sustaining a centuries-old custom, the two-day occasion is a pageant of music and dance to showcase a bride resplendent in conventional Bosniak costume.

American Melissa Guerrero was dazzled when she attended a conventional marriage ceremony on her first go to to Donje Ljubinje, close to the town of Prizren, in 2013 to fulfill the household of her highschool sweetheart. A lot so she dreamt of getting an analogous marriage ceremony herself.

Final week Melissa, 30, realised that dream. Dressed head to toe in conventional costume, her face painted white with elaborate sprays and dots of crimson, blue, gold and silver, she married Melsid Redzepi, who’s from a Bosnian household in Kosovo. He was seven when the conflict started in Kosovo and his household moved to the USA.

As Melissa ready for the marriage ceremony, loud drum music performed whereas an aged lady painted her face, a course of that takes about two hours throughout which period the bride can’t open her eyes, discuss to anybody or eat or drink.
Cooks who had butchered an enormous bull ready meals for a feast for tons of of individuals.

“After I got here for the primary time in 2013, I witnessed a marriage right here and I simply thought it was so wealthy and so particular and it’s one thing that I had by no means seen wherever else on this planet,” stated Melissa, a graphics designer who was born in Mexico earlier than her household emigrated to the USA when she was 11. She met Melsid in elementary college in Chicago.
“All these strains and people colors on the face of the bride symbolize an expertise be that happiness, love, respect, concord and so forth,” stated Xhavit Rexhepi, a former biology professor who has written a guide on native traditions within the space.
Though related face work and costumes, that are pagan in origin, could be present in different communities in nations reminiscent of Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey, Rexhepi stated the designs on marriage ceremony clothes in his village are distinctive.

DYING ART?
Donje Ljubinje’s inhabitants has halved from about 3,000 inhabitants 20 years in the past as many emigrated overseas. July and August are the busiest months for weddings as many individuals with hyperlinks to the village return to go to then and there’s a marriage ceremony day-after-day, generally twice a day.
“As soon as you might be born right here you can’t get out of it,” stated Melsid, the groom.

Nevertheless, there are fewer and fewer folks yearly who need this sort of conventional marriage ceremony and there is just one lady left who does the make-up.

Aziza Sefitagic, who’s in her late 60s, has tried to show her artwork to different girls within the village however most of them have since emigrated to Western nations.
“I simply hope this custom won’t die with me,” Sefitagic stated whereas portray Melissa’s face.

Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Modifying by Susan Fenton

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