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Bridal market in Stara Zagora: A Kalaidzhi family is looking for husbands for their two daughters
Photo: GIUSEPPE NUCCI
For young women and men it is pretty much the only way to get to know each other: The Roma of the Kalaidzhi subgroup rely on traditional bridal markets to bring couples together - as they did hundreds of years ago.
The rules are less romantic than strictly patriarchal: the future husband and his family select a young woman for whom a price is negotiated.
This depends on how old she is, how long her hair is and how light her skin is.
But the most important characteristic: she must be a virgin.
The Kalaidzhi tribe consists of around 18,000 people.
They live in Bulgaria, where they are discriminated against in many ways.
Many commute to Germany or Great Britain to work in slaughterhouses or on the assembly line.
The Kalaidzhi live largely isolated from the majority society and mostly marry each other.
The bridal markets take place several times a year.
Some of the traditions practiced there reminded the photographer Giuseppe Nucci of the stories about his own ancestors in Italy - such as the bloody handkerchief that is presented to the bride after the wedding night as proof of premarital chastity.
Nucci wanted to know more and traveled four times to a bridal market in a bus parking lot in the Bulgarian region of Thrace.
He managed to accompany several families.
"They are very proud of their traditions and of the bridal market," says Nucci.
Find out more about the bridal market in Bulgaria in the photo gallery:
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