A Kurdish wedding can last two or three days, fill a whole neighbourhood with sound, and involve hundreds of guests who may have travelled from several cities or even several countries to be there. The dawet, as the wedding celebration is widely known across Kurdish-speaking communities, is one of the most important social events in Kurdish life. And at its centre, always, is Kurdish wedding music and the govend, the line dance that turns a crowd of strangers into something that moves like one body.
What is the dawet?
The word dawet is used across much of Kurdistan, though you will hear dawêt in Kurmanji-speaking areas of Bakûr (northern Kurdistan, in Turkey) and Rojava (northern Syria), and slight variations elsewhere. The dawet is not just the wedding day itself. It is the whole sequence of gatherings around a marriage, which can include a henna night for the women of the bride’s family, processions between houses, and a final party that may go on well past midnight for several nights running.
Weddings in Kurdish culture are communal events in a very serious sense. Whole extended families and neighbourhoods are invited. Food is prepared in enormous quantities, often outdoors over open fires. In rural areas, the celebrations have traditionally taken place in the open air, with the music loud enough to carry across the valley. In diaspora communities across Europe, North America and Australia, the dawet has adapted to fit hired halls and community centres, but the essential shape of it remains recognisable.
The govend: a circle that includes everyone
The govend is a circle or line dance performed to live music or recorded songs. Participants hold hands or link little fingers, and the steps, though they vary by region, follow a pattern that most Kurdish people learn simply by watching and joining in as children. There is no audition, no special skill required. The govend is deliberately inclusive. Grandmothers and small children dance alongside young adults, and a guest who has never seen it before will usually find themselves pulled gently into the line within the first few minutes.
Different regions have their own govend styles. In Bakûr, particularly around Amed (Diyarbakir), the dance tends to be energetic, with sharp footwork and a driving rhythm. In Bashur (the Kurdistan Region of Iraq), around Hewlêr (Erbil) and Silêmanî (Sulaymaniyah), the movements can be more flowing. In Rojhilat (Iranian Kurdistan), around Sine (Sanandaj) and Kirmaşan (Kermanshah), there are local variations in arm position and step sequence. These are not rigid categories, and Kurdish people from different regions dance together all the time, adjusting as they go.
The instruments and the singers
Kurdish wedding music is built around a small number of core instruments, most of which have been played at celebrations for centuries. The zurna, a loud double-reed wind instrument, is perhaps the most immediately recognisable sound of a Kurdish outdoor wedding. It cuts through open air effortlessly and signals, to anyone within earshot, that something is being celebrated. Alongside it, the dehol (a large double-headed drum) provides the rhythm that the govend dancers lock onto. Together, zurna and dehol form a pairing found across the Middle East and Central Asia, but in Kurdistan they carry a sound and a repertoire that are distinctly their own.
Inside, or in more intimate settings, the tembûr (a long-necked lute) and the saz appear, as does the daf, a large frame drum often associated with Sufi music but used widely in celebrations too. Singers play a central role. A good wedding singer, known in some areas as a stranbêj, knows a large repertoire of regional songs and can read the crowd, moving between slow, emotional numbers and fast dance pieces. Some wedding singers have become well known across Kurdish communities through recordings and television appearances, and their songs circulate far beyond the specific weddings where they were first heard.
Kurdish wedding music has also absorbed influences over generations. You will hear songs in Kurmanji, Sorani, Gorani and Zazaki at different weddings, and sometimes all of these at one wedding if the families come from different regions. Some songs are ancient, passed down through oral tradition in much the same way as the dengbêj (the traditional Kurdish oral poets and singers) passed down epic stories. Others are modern compositions that have simply caught on and spread.
The dawet in the diaspora
For Kurds living outside Kurdistan, the wedding celebration takes on an additional meaning. It is one of the main occasions when a scattered community gathers in one place. Cousins who live in different cities see each other. Older relatives reconnect with songs from home. Children who have grown up speaking the language of their country of residence find themselves surrounded by Kurdish for a whole weekend.
Diaspora weddings often blend traditions from different parts of Kurdistan, because the guests themselves come from different backgrounds. A wedding in Stockholm or London or Nashville might feature Sorani songs requested by the groom’s family and Kurmanji songs requested by the bride’s, with a govend that mixes steps from both traditions. This blending is not always deliberate. It just happens naturally when people from different regions share a dance floor, and the result is something new that still feels completely Kurdish.
At Kurdistan.fm, we play the music that fills these celebrations, from classic wedding songs to the artists carrying the tradition forward today. If you have a favourite wedding song, a memory of a dawet, or a govend story you would like to share, we would love to hear from you.