Handwoven Dowries From the Gotse Delchev Region of Bulgaria

In the Gotse Delchev area of Bulgaria, girls in many villages still bring hand-woven dowry items to their wedding. These items include bread cloths, aprons, baby carriers, horse rugs. floor rugs, and bed covers. The dowry items are prepared by the girl and her mother, beginning as early as the daughter\u27s birth in some cases. Since a girl and her family are Judged upon the quality of the work, it is of great importance that the hand-woven items demonstrate skill and aesthetic values. The competition to have the best possible dowry items leads to \u27stealing\u27 especially fine patterns, which in turn leads to changing fashion in aesthetics. Each village or set of villages has its own style of ornamentation, and even its own traditional way of displaying the dowry. This paper uses several actual dowries to illustrate how the dowry and its display reflect the changing aesthetics and unchanging need for the dowry and its public presentation