Wedding celebration and its practices in Persian poems based on the verses of Weiss and Ramin

The celebration in Iran is divided into two categories: 1- Special celebrations that took place at a particular time including Nowruz, Mehregan, Sadeh, etc.; 2- public celebrations that did not depend on a specific time, including the feasts on King's enthroning, childbirth, circumcision, and marriage. In this article, an attempt has been made to review Iranian customs during the wedding ceremony through poem books including the “Weis and Ramin” poems book composed by Fakhruddin Asad Gorgani; the customs many of which are still common in Iranian society; some were not affected or removed by the change of Iranian religion, but even were affirmed by Islam. Fortunetelling and observing the time for holding the celebration are traditions that still today are customary among people. Wedding parties at the court, like other celebrations, were accompanied by drinking and listening to music. Wedding rituals today are also celebrated with pleasant voice of the music. Scenting the party with burning of aloe wood and sugar is another custom of the wedding ceremony. Taking dowry and marriage fee from the groom, setting up the celebration and banqueting people, bride’s toilet, etc. are other marriage traditions customary among people that have been referred to in the poems of Persian language poets. A primary ritual as the introduction of the wedding in the old and even in the present time, in some places, is nominating at the birth time, which is called today "Naf Boran” (bellybutton cutting). In some cases, we see the pre-wedding customs, i.e., getting the marriage fee from the groom, and drafting a marriage deed for the bride, as well as getting dowry from the groom, which is common also today among the Iranians. As inferred by the Gorgani’s poem, the “Kabin-Khahi” ritual (requesting a marriage fee) from the bride's relatives was also widespread in the pre-Islamic Iran. As indicated by the poems, the dowry of princes was predomination over lands. Also, the one who proposed more marriage fee would win to catch the girl. A special wedding ritual that has been customary in ancient Iran is praise of God and praying for the bride and groom's happiness. It seems that the only source for this tradition is the Weis and Ramin poems book; according to Gorgani, this special praise was recited by the owner of the wedding party, such as the bride or groom's mother. Praise of God, along with other Ameshasepandan, such as the oracle, the sun, the moon, etc. at the beginning of the wedding ceremony was performed with the purpose of seeking bliss with them and cursing the devils to get rid of them. Another marriage custom was toileting of the bride at the wedding night and her ornamentation, and putting the crown on the bride’s head. The bride was toileted by beauticians; they used old makeup tools such as Sormeh, roseate cream, and indigo to ornament the bride; they trimmed her face and eyebrows, stamped her face using the empty Ghalieh (having a speckle on the corner of the lips was among the Iranian beauty standards) and arranged her hair, and scented her body with rosewater; and thus the bride was prepared to celebrate the beginning of their marital life. Another ritual customary in Iranian wedding ceremonies, just like other nations, was giving parties. At parties on the occasion of the auspicious celebration in the courts, ceremonies like banqueting, performing games such as polo, sprinkling gold and sugar over the bride and groom’s heads, scenting the party using burning aloes wood and sugar were other rituals of the parties. Sugar sprinkling was a ritual that has been mentioned in many other literary texts as a celebration ritual, which in addition to being sweet and a blessed start for marriage was taken into consideration for its expensiveness and the luxury aspect.  The remnants of this tradition can be seen in rubbing of sugar cubes over the bride and groom’s heads in the current Iranian society. By reviewing Persian poems and contrasting them, we found that among the reviewed poems books, the Weis and Ramin poems book had the most references to the wedding ceremonies, and this is due to the subject of the book, which relates to the life of two lovers called Weis And Ramin and their marriages (wedding of Weis with Mobed and Viro and Ramin) (Ramin's marriage to Gol and Weis) Ferdowsi also has mentioned to some ceremonies and traditions on the occasion of the marriage of heroes and kings. Other poets have more or less dealt with this subject; poets such as Anwari and Farokhi whose poetry was inspired by the courtiers had some references to some of the wedding customs in their poems on the occasion of the courtiers’ wedding. Poets such as Sanaei, Attar and Khaqani whose poetry has a mystical nature, though not addressed this ritual directly, but have pointed to some wedding rituals through similes and metaphors.