Evil Eye

I am just so in love with planning weddings that have different cultural or religious traditions other than my own. We have so many different cultures and religions being represented here at Lindeman Weddings this year--I can't wait to start sharing all of them with you. Some wedding traditions I come across I find amusing but most often I find that there is so much meaning behind each tradition--it is just down right endearing.

So I just finished up coordinating a Turkish wedding and I can't wait to share the photos. Best genre of music ever by the way! During that entire reception DJ DaMarr from Wave Link Music and I were trying to contain ourselves--we just wanted to bust out and dance with everyone!

Until the photo debut I wanted to share one of the favors they gave to their guests. Each guest received a box filled with Turkish Baklava. Adorning the ribbon that was tied around the box was a bead like the one pictured below. This is called an 'Evil Eye.' A traditional bead/charm from Turkey and Greece. It is traditionally worn as some form of jewelry, or the bead is pinned onto sweaters and newborn children's clothing, etc. The 'evil eye' is meant to keep other people's envious thoughts from hurting you. I giggled to myself, thinking if there is any place I see lots of jealously, a wedding reception might be up there.

It started me thinking on envy and jealousy. It is everywhere. If something good happens to you, such as, you loose a bunch of weight, you fall in love, get married, become wealthy, have a baby, etc--undoubtedly there is someone that is jealous of your good fortune. I know you should strive to never be jealous of anyone else, but never really thought having protection from someones jealous thoughts hurting you--but they can very much.

Just an interesting tradition I thought I'd share...looking forward to sharing more cultural traditions as this wedding season unfolds. We have so many weddings of different cultures this year!