RIBNOVO, Bulgaria: The communists tried hard to stamp out the culture of Bulgaria’s rural Pomak minority, and since then tough times in the European Union’s poorest country have made many leave, but one village is keeping traditions alive.

Nestled in the southern snow-capped Rhodope Mountains, each winter Ribnovo rolls back the centuries for workers returning from construction and farming jobs in Germany, Britain or Israel to tie the knot in extraordinary Muslim weddings.

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