Mongolian Wedding Ceremony.

Mongolian Wedding Ceremony.

The traditional Mongolian wedding ceremony has slowly changed over time. Still the Mongolian people are trying to keep the traditional wedding rituals while also caring about the younger generations’ interests by mixing modern wedding notions with traditional ones.

Most Mongolian people care about the in-law’s family roots. Mongolian people say that the future son-in-law’s father should accept their daughter and the future daughter-in-law’s mother should accept their son.  This saying means that the son-in-law will treat his future wife like how his father treated his wife, and that the daughter-in-law will treat her future husband like her mother treated her husband.

Mongolian Engagement

When the Mongolian couple agrees to marry one another and they then explain their engagements to the groom’s parents. The groom’s parent wishes good luck for their son’s future life and plans the ceremony with the bride’s parents’ to discuss the proposal. At the engagement ceremony the groom’s father brings a hadag – (a specially made band of silk) and a silver bowl-like cup filled with milk, this means that he welcomes his daughter-in-law. He says that the couple loves each other and we love your daughter, your daughter will marry my son, we will treat your daughter like our own daughter and he then gives the hadag and silver bowl-like cup with milk to the bride’s father. If the brides’ father accepts the bowl-like cup then the bride’s parents’ will later on start to plan an engagement ceremony.

When the bride’s family accepts the engagement, it means they accept the groom as their own son.

Mongolian wedding ring symbols  

The groom’s wedding ring has two crowns that intersect with one another, this resembles the souls of both the bride and groom being conjoined together forever in true love. His ring shape is round like the Mongolian ger (yurt) which has a round crown, this is called a toono. This means the husband resembles the house roof that will act as protection of his wife and family. Her ring crown is in the shape of a diamond, also similar to the shape of the Mongolian ger (yurt) bagana and this is supposed to represent the post that holds up the ger. This means the wife is the center support of the family, like holding up a roof. On each ring there’s four connected dots on the outside of the crown shape. The two crown shapes that are crossing and interconnected means the couple will be together forever in soul and life.

Also 4 dots each together look up from every quarter in the world and together through anything and forever.

The wife wears her wedding ring on the left hand wedding ring finger, this means that she carries her husband in her heart. The husband wears his wedding ring on the right hand ring finger, this means he carries the strength of their life together.

                                                                  Mongolian wedding ceremony.

Each Mongolian aimag (state) has customs that are a little different when it comes to Mongolian wedding ceremonies. The bride and groom choose their wedding witnesses, they traditionally choose a sister-in-law. In Mongolian families the daughter in law is like their own daughter so sister in laws are the same as sisters.

At the wedding ceremony Mongolian people wear long sleeved clothing that cover their shoulders; the long sleeves and covered shoulders represent a good and complete life for the couple.

The Mongolian Wedding Palace is where most people celebrate their wedding. The Bride and groom stand arm in arm, with them they will have two witnesses (who are usually the sister-in-laws) standing in front of the official. The official will ask the couple if they will marry one another. The bride and groom will answer “Yes”, after that they will sign their wedding documents and the wedding official will have witnessed that they signed the document as well. They place the rings on after the wedding official pronounces them husband and wife.

Mongolian wedding gifts

The gifts received are very important for the newly weds and their start of a new life. The gifts of the newlywed’s parents help aid their future life. The husband’s family gives a ger (yurt) and some animals. The wife’s family gives a full kitchen set, they also give clothes and jewelry.  These gifts allow them to have a roof and a beginning to life.

Friends and relatives usually give money or other gifts. 

In modern times the parent’s gifts are different but most herders still give a ger and animals.

Mongolian wedding reception.

The arrangement of the wedding reception is like a Mongolian ger (yurt) in a side style way, the door always faces south. The groom stands north west, next to him is a honord sister – in – law, and so are his father and mother, around them are his relatives and friends; the wife stands to the husband’s left, next to her is a honored sister-in-law, and so are her father and mothers, around them are her relatives and friends. The eldest of the group tend to sit in the front of the ceremony as a sign of respect.

A Mongolian wedding consists of singing traditional folk songs; also the newlywed’s receive blessings and good wishes.  

By. S. Uzmee 10.28.2014

Mongolian Hasky sack.

In ancient times Mongolians played Hacky sack or foot-bag; Mongolian’s called this Teveg. Famous Mongolian writer L. Tudev said that this game was originated in Mongolia. Mongolian "Teveg" made by tiny peace of dry sheepskin with lead.

The foot-bag originated in Asia during the dynasty era in ancient China. Imperial guards stayed alert during their overnight assignments by kicking a small round object that was stuffed with hair around. A similar object was used to train Chinese soldiers in 2600 B.c.

About 2,000 years ago in Asia, a game called shuttlecock began to be played. At its center was a disc with feathers this was kicked between players. Shuttlecock is still played in parts of the continent.

The history of the footbag in the United States began in the early 1970s. Mike Marshall had taken a trip to Asia and seen one of the footbag-like games there. In 1972, Marshall met John Stalberger Jr., a former football player recovering from a knee injury who was looking for a rehabilitation exercise. They came up with the footbag. This early version was a small sock stuffed with dried corn and tied. Stalberger and Marshall tested out several versions of the bag, a few of which were beanbag-like, and they experimented with various ways to use it. This game is now popular in over 40 countries around the world; it even has a world championship game.

By. S.Uzmee

Butterfly

Butterfly

I’ve heard about cancer

Felt so sorry for those who had cancer

My friend had cancer

Every month he had treatments

Our families, friends all together

Sharing our feelings

Going together for his treatments

Month after month

Days run together

How many days?

How many months did we go through?

We are together laughing and talking

We are together drinking coffee

Visiting each together

Sharing holidays, helping each other

One day my friend shed his cocoon

Became like a butterfly

He had no more pain

Freedom he had and flew from us

He’s gone, now I’ve got cancer

My friend was like my brother

My friend cared about my family

My friend was like an uncle to my children

I will fight cancer

I am a strong woman

I am Mother

I am a good wife

I am not yet ready to leave this world

I will live my life

I will be a grandmother one day

I will enjoy my grandchildren

I promise - I will survive.

S. Uzmee  07.26.2014

 

The Revival of a Mothers Love

The Revival of a Mothers Love

          

Mongolian herders have five types of domestic animals: they have small cattle; such as: goats and sheep; and they have large cattle; such as: horses, cows, yaks, and bactrian camels. A herder’s life style is to raise and to understand the animals. January and February is the animal’s calving time. Sometimes the mother animals don’t want to feed their own newborns; herders try to solve this by using special traditional methods such as; playing soft music and using a soft voice to sing to the mother to try and soften her heart. These traditional methods usually end up with the mother recognizing and taking care of her baby. These methods are also used to have a different animal mother adopt the baby if the original mother died.

This amazing tradition mostly works with small domestic animals. A baby lamb can be adopted by a female sheep because the herder sings, “Toig, toig, toig”, by singing the herder tempts the mother sheep into comforting the lamb. Some parts of the country sing something different such as: “Durui, durui, durui”. The same applies to goats by singing, “Cheeg, cheeg, cheeg,  or  tseeg, tseeg, tseeg, or zuu, zuu, zuu”. Sometimes these methods do not work as the  goats and sheep won’t adopt the

babies. During these times herders try to have cows to adopt the babies. When cows

adopt their own kind (calves) the herder sings: “Ohoh, ohoh, ohoh, or Hoov,hoov,hoov, or hoor, hoor, hoor,or  sugai, sugai, sugai.

  But other large domestic animals can be more difficult to  convince to adopt or to even recognize their own child if they did not recognize their child after birth. Camels especially take a long time to do so; sometimes it even takes days.

They place the morin huur on the camels hump and as the wind blows through it the sounds made by the wind on the strings will calm the camel down. They attempt to unite the two by tempting the mother with showing that the calf misses the camel mother. The herder sings with emotion to try to get the mother to take in the baby. They usually sing with “Hoos, hoos, hoos… “  

calling to the colt singing “Gurii, gurii, gurii the colt looks so cute as it comes galloping to you.  Horses usually do not have issues with recognizing their foal; the only time an issue like this normally occurs is if the mare dies during foaling (birth) and the foal needs to be adopted by another mare.

They usually accompany the songs with music played on the morin huur.(It is a horse head fiddle a kind of cello with two strings made with the hairs of a horses tail and has a square shaped body with a long neck; at the top of the neck is the figure of a horse head).

            Mongolian herders not only just raise the animals but they also understand and care for the animals. They try to solve the issues in the animal’s life and make life as pleasant as possible for the animal.

 By. S.Uzmee 

A MONGOLIAN MOTHER’S FEELING

A MONGOLIAN MOTHER’S FEELING

            

 Mongolians have numerous songs about Mothers, poetic renditions from many years past. Mongolian people talk about how strong the connection between a mother and child is; it’s dominated by maternal love from birth until the grave. Mothers all over the world care for their children and share a special bond, yet the traditional Mongolian culture seems to forge a stronger link than those of other cultures. The answer lies within how the Mongolian culture nurtures such strong bonds between a mother and child; you need to understand that it was based on a matriarchal society that revered women and mothers holding them above all others.

Most Mongolian mothers breast feed their children until they are at least two years old, some continue until the child is almost five years old – this depends on the child’s needs and the mother’s ability to produce milk. This connection between mother and child builds a strong bond that follows them throughout their life. As the child grows up the mother educates them indirectly by the child watching what she does and mimicking her – the mother encourages this behavior and the bond grows stronger still. At night time from the time the child is an infant the mother hums and sings traditional lullaby’s  – the child falls to sleep hearing their mother’s voice which quickly relaxes them into slumber. Most Mongolian mothers pray to God every morning by sprinkling milk or milk tea to the four directions and asking for their child’s health and happiness.  

P. Badarch is a famous Mongolian Poet – one of his most important and famous works was a poem about his Mother – in an interview about this poem he expressed how strongly he understood the connection with his mother and how it was part of his soul.

He wrote the poem“ Mother’s Emotion“ . That poem is very popular with the Mongolian people because of how it touches and pulls their heart strings.  Most people upon hearing or reading the poem have silent tears coursing down their cheeks as it pulls up memories of their mother.  

                 P. Badarch ; -“ My poem was about my mother’s feeling , she was a Mongolian herder’s wife.   I will never forget my childhood, I remember going with my mother to pick up dried cow droppings called “Argal” which is a natural fuel that people living on the steppes use as there is almost no wood to be used for fuel.

P. Badarch

 

Mother’s emotion

Your Mom, dreamt that her son died

In 80 years never before had dreamt that nightmare  

While milking the cows, worry is in my mind

My heart and mind throb

Fretful thoughts replay in my mind, thinking about my son

Charming poetry written by my son, reportedly, people reading

Clever songs written by my son, reportedly, I hear from the radio

My son is living good, reportedly told to me

My son is in trouble; I am told by people’s gossip
Doesn’t matter to me

You’re alive that makes mom proud

Mom is missing you very much

I became distracted by thinking of you; I switched my basket and scooper

Making the mistake of picking up the rocks for fuel instead of dry manure

Due to my son’s absence

Looking in the distance, I see a camel sized cloud, in my mind maybe it will freeze

Pink horizon sky, maybe night will crack from day

Still he does not come to Mom    

I hear of other people’s son coming to their Mom

They are celebrating in the village

My son is in jail

This heart breaking news is told to me

Oh, so why can’t I defend my son’s side

Is he hungry? I worry and discreetly cry inside

In youth my son was bright like an ember

This single life of mine, my son was like a leaf breaking free

Treasure in my arms, my wishes came to true when he was born

I imagined it like absorbing luck from the ground

Dreaming about finding my only son  

If you’re in trouble my son, don’t to mess around come to Mom

If you’re just hanging around my son, don’t be there just come to Mom

In somebody’s eye my son is like mold on a rock, Old & gray is my son

In your mom’s eye you are still wrapped in a blanket, my baby

Come to Mom

Calling out for you

Scaring you with soon I will die

Please come to Mom my son

Smart is my baby hurai hurai hurai * - to make exclamations of pity

Like a baby colt come to Mom gurii gurii * -to make exclamations of pity

 This poem is about a Mother missing her son very much and worrying about her son’s life; she looks into distance, waiting for son for a long time. This poem is short synopsis of the mother’s feelings throughout time, from her heart. Her son lives in the capital city and he wrote this poem to express how his mother must have felt.

 “...Араг, савар хоёрыг зөрүүлэн байж би хүүгээ бодлоо

Аргал чулуу хоёрыг андууран байж хүүгээ саналаа...”

“I became distracted by thinking of you; I switched my basket and scooper

Making the mistake of picking up the rocks for fuel instead of dry manure”

Mongolian herders often had to pick up manure to fuel the fire in their homes. She missed her son, Badarch, and was busy thinking of him so she accidently mixed up her basket and her scooper; she also mistakenly picked up rocks instead of dry manure due to not paying attention because she was thinking about her son.

Badarch said that you can translate poetry word for words, and that you could also explain the poem’s meaning. But you can’t translate the Mongolian people’s feelings in their heart. I agree with him on that; everybody’s mind and imagination is different. How one person understands and the way their brain pictures it differs from how other people’s minds will.       

Also Badarch said; He always remembers the famous Demchigdorj’s  book   “Royalty thesaurus  dictionary”. In the dictionary it stated “If a child is living far away the Mother’s heart sometimes goes with her child. If the child is feeling bad, in the long distant the Mother can feel it; and the mother will feel sick from worry. If the child living well, the mother feels has energy and feels well. A mother and her child’s heart can never disconnect. When born the umbilical cord is cut but an emotional umbilical cord can never be cut.  An intrinsic gold cord is connected between their hearts.  The mothers spirit  will also look over the child from Heaven.” 

Badarch also said: I always miss my mom very much.  True from my heart I wrote this poem so it will also touch other people’s hearts.  This poem was in my mind and in my heart I felt my Mother.  I got awards and had proud days, but I also lost my job and had sad days.  I always believe my Mother is looking over me; this makes me feel good. I remember at the President’s office I received the best author award; at that time I felt my mom was with me. If my mom was here she would be so proud of me. When I think of her I can’t hold back my tears and I instantly cry.

Authors Note: I also remember my mom; she birthed me into this world and she helped me with my life. My mom was a very talented and handy woman. She sewed and designed clothes; I started to help her with that when I was in the 4^th grade. She sewed coats, dresses, hats, costumes and was very good at knitting; also at embroidery.   She is why I also became a handy woman. I always miss my mom;  I also believe my lovely mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and my brothers are looking over me from Heaven.  

By.S.Uzmee3.30.2014