No more Big Fat Wedding: Turks struggle to be wed in times of the coronavirus

Two mannequins — one dressed as a bride and the other as a groom — stood at the entry of a sober wedding hall in the town of Saray in Tekirdag province, the European part of Turkey, on July 5. Visitors wearing face masks pinned gold coins on the blonde-wigged dummy bride and banknotes — either Turkish liras or dollars — on the groom under the watchful eye of the real bride and groom who sat at a safe distance, both wearing masks.

A cheeky Twitter user compared the photos of this coronavirus wedding as “a scene from ‘Black Mirror,’” alluding to Netflix’s dystopian science fiction anthology. However, the newlyweds Sinem and Sinan Dag were simply trying to reconcile tradition with the Turkish government’s new regulation on weddings during these pandemic times. Weddings were once again allowed in Turkey as of July 1 following a new regulation that carefully outlines new rules that aim to assure social distancing.

In such pandemic-conscious affairs, the usual jovial congratulations with kisses and hugs at the entrance are to be replaced with checking temperatures and offering sanitizers. Under the regulation, no one will dance but the grooms and brides. No group photos are to be taken, and gifts are to be placed in a box rather than pinned on the bridal couple as tradition dictates. Gone are the big fat Turkish weddings with lavish celebrations, before and after parties, and the halay — a traditional dance where people dance shoulder to shoulder in a line, similar to the dabke in the Middle East) — where bachelors in the wedding rub shoulders.

Fahrettin Koca, Turkey’s health minister whose terse twits often names and shames those who deviate from his ministry’s coronavirus measures, relented on the halay tradition, tweeting that it was alright to do it as long as people held something like a pole between them, rather than dance shoulder to shoulder.