Lawên | لاوێن · @Lawwwen
26th Nov 2017 from TwitLonger
Bûk Baranê | The Rain Bride
There are among the Kurds several magical costumes for the purpose of ensuring rain. Let us begin the custom of the rain-bride, since this custom is also prevalent among other peoples in the world.
In Zaxo (Zakho) the bûk baranê, that is, rain-bride, is a young man dressed in torn clothes, with a chain made of cattle bones around his neck and a basket on his head. He is accompanied by four other young men, and followed by a crowd of youngsters and children. They wind their way through the streets and dance. Two of those who accompany him claps his hand and the other sing:
Our bride is beautiful, beautiful
And where is the remedy for the bridegroom?
Our bride seeks rain
O, God, she wants food,
Lov, lov lov
As they pass from house to house, each house-owner pours water on the rain bride and give food as a gift to her company. The custom of bûk baranê as preformed in nearby Duhok is similar. A young man takes off his clothes and puts on only short trousers. He smears his legs with grape honey, and sticks on them tufs of cotton wool. In the same manner he acquires a beard. Around his neck he puts a bridle, and he is also tied with a rope with which a large group of young men pull him all over the streets of the town. They enter the houses singing: ”bûke baranê, bûke baranê” (Bride of Rain, bride of rain). The others respond ”baran dawêt, baran dawêt” (She wants rain, she wants rain). Here too the house owners pour water on the rain boy and his company, giving raisins and some money to the other youngsters, who divide the booty among them after the completion of the procession.
This nostrum belongs to the type of the most widespread custom called ”Rain bride”. In the original form of this custom the ritual rules demanded the participation of a naked girl, who was led around in the street and the people poured water on her. At the later stage she was covered with a shirt made of tree leaves. This custom is typical example of sympathy or imitative magic. The girl represents the vegetation, or the god of vegetation, which (or who) comes to life again by being doused with water, which is an imitation of rain. As among the Kurds, as among other peoples, the place of the girl is frequently taken by a boy. This is the case in southern Europe, for example, in Macedonia and Dalmatia. Also in Poona in India they dress a young man in tree leaves and lead him around in the streets as the Rain King and the householder and the wife sprinkle him with water, while children receive presents.
In Amêdî (Amadiya), on the other hand, they dress up a woman in man’s clothing. She attaches a beard made of goat’s hair to her face, ties a kerchief around her head, and thus attired walks the streets of the town. In some localities the human being representing the spirit or the god of rain is replaced by an image or effigy. Thus, for example, in Sine (Sanandaj) they make an image out of two beams, and dress it up in clothes. They call it bûke baranê. A young man or girl carries the image in his hands sining ”bûke baranê hewu hewu” (Bride of rain, he, he). The children following the procession respond ”ya xwa wuarê” (“oh God, may it rain”). Here too the owners the houses pour water on the bride and the children, and sometimes give gifts. If anybody refuses to pour water, they break the vessels in which they keep water in. Upon the conclusion of the procession the figure is thrown into the river.
A performance with such a figure is known also in some parts of Armenia. There, the children dress up a broomstick as a girl, carry it from house to house, and sing:
Nurin, Nurin is come
The wonderful Maiden is come
Bring water to our on her head,
give butter to smear on her hair,
Let the blessed rain fall,
Let the field of your father grow green
They pour water on Nurin, receive presents of butter, eggs, rice and so forth. Afterwards they take Nurin to the river and throw her into the water. In some places the name Nurin is replaced with ”Chi-chi Mama” or ”The Drenched Mother”. In Riha/Urfa in time of drought the children make a rain-bride which they call ”Chimché-Gelin”, which, they say, means in Turkish ”shovel bride”. Here too the effigy is thrown into the river.
A different form of the custom is found among the Kurds of Hewlêr (Erbil). There, next to the bride a bridegroom also appears, represented not by images but by live people, that is, by young men. The youth who is the bride, bûke baranê, is dressed in women’s clothes and the bridegroom wears, as in Zaxo, only short trousers. He too smears his body with a glue and attaches tufs of cotton wool to it. His face he smears with black clay, and sticks to it a beard. On his head he has a tall hat made of cardboard, and around his neck a chain of rags. The entire ritual has turned into a burlesque. Although the basis of the dramatic performance is the representation of demons for the purpose of magic, as a rule comic features play an important role in it. Thus, for example, while they march along the street accompanied by a large crowd, the ”bridegroom” tries to embrace the ”bride”. She pushes him away. He stumbles and falls. Thereupon the ”bride” sits down next to him and ”cries” over him in a manner of mourners crying over the dead. Then the ”bridegroom” and the ”bride”, accompanied by the crowd, go from house to house, and the people pour water on them and give presents to them. The burlesque performance of death and mourning might be based on a magical-dramatic representation of the death of the vegetation (or possibly vegetation god), the mourning over him/her and the resurrection. It is of interest to mention here that a bride and bride groom appear also in some of the circumcision rites of muslim Kurds. In Zaxo, for instance, two boys get undressed, smear themselves with grape honey, and stick tufs of colored cotton wool to their body. They put on high hats which cover their faces, as well, with holes for the eyes. They hold swords in their hands, and thus march along the streets next to the horse on which is carried the child to be circumcised. When they pass the house of rich people, they are given resents, and especially the father of the child is lavish with his gifts.
My mother and aunts recall ”playing” bûke baranê as children. The ritual, which by then seem to have lost most of its divine or spiritual elements as described further up, was played in the similar fashion of that of Sine. In Silêmanî (Suleymaniya) a boy or a girl would hold the the doll made out of fabrics on a broomstick or something similar. The doll was dressed in clothes and then paraded through the streets while the children followed, clapping their hands and singing bûke be baranê (bride with rain):
Bûke be baranê
Awî bin dexlanê
Heyaran û meyaran
Ya xwa dekate baran
Bo feqîr û hejaran
Sometimes also:
Nanî feqîr zor key
Çawî dujmin kwêy key
The children were singing to the ”bride with rain”, asking her to pour down rain for the ”poor and needy”. They sang this while each house poured water on the bride rain and the children.
I find these traditions important to remember. If you take out the superstition and magic, which was the case when my parents grew up, it’s simply a fun summer game or water fight in hope of the first autumn rain.
Kurdish:
Bûk | Bride
Baran, Waran | Rain