Lately many weddings are devoted to certain thematic ideas. Some couples choose real wedding rituals of forgotten past like the traditional Chuvash wedding.

On April 25 the Marriage Palace of Cheboksary welcomed a Chuvash wedding. Groom Ruvim and bride Irinia dressed in ceremonial outfits decorated with traditional ornaments proceeded into the palace to a Chuvash tune.

Of all the 43 marriages on that day this might have been the most colorful and extraordinary as all the guests who saluted the newlyweds were also dressed in traditional costumes.

Melinda Takacs

Turns out the Chuvash Language is very well respected for its importance in Hungary, a fact now proven by Melinda Takacs. The 28-year-old came to Chuvashia to study the language.

Melinda habituated herself to speaking Russian. She is a graduate student in the University of Szeged, Hungary. Melinda is an archeologist, also intersted in the studies of atheism.

Melinda Takacs states that Chuvash is the only Turkic language surviving in the western world. According to her some 400 Chuvash words were borrowed by the Hungarian language,

e.g. these words still sound the same

cv. pӑru - hu. borjú 'calf'

cv. şil - hu. szél 'wınd'

cv. sysna - hu. disznó 'swine'

cv. šӑpӑr - hu. seprű 'sweeper'

This makes Hungarians believe in their close relationship with the Ancient Hungarian Bulgarians.

Upon arriving in Cheboksary Melinda registered for the Language of Success' Chuvash course. While attending the mentioned classes, she goes to Chuvash State Humanities Institute and libraries to study. Melinda is especially interested in the Chuvash agricultural terminology, which she wants to include in her Master's thesis. Melinda believes she is always pressed for time while in Hungary - she has to attend and read lectures, edit books… But in Cheboksary her Chuvash studies are interrupted by nothing and nobody. She began studying the grammar on her own while in her home country, but mastering speaking and reading turned out more difficult. Recently she also started studying the languages of Volga Bulgaria.

Melind Takacs won a grant in the University of Szeged for traineeship in the city of Shupashkar. The young lady came to Chuvashia for a three-month period. When she eventually goes back to Hungary she intends to get another visa to visit Shupashkar again.

Gennadiy Aygi died on February 21 in Moscow on the 72nd year of his life. The funeral is informed to be on the 24 of February.

Aygi is the world-wide known Chuvashian poet and a translator.

He was born in the Shaimurzino Village, Chuvashia (USSR) and started writing poetry in Chuvash language in 1958.

Among the recognition he has won are the Andrey Bely Prize (1987), the Pasternak Prize (2000, the first to be awarded this), the Prize of French Academy (1972), and the Petrarch Prize (1993).

Chuvash.org is mourning for this big loss of a great poet.

Also visit:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/feb/25/guardianobituaries.books_http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/feb/25/guardianobituaries.books