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Young bride Lucia, 23, poses during preparations for her wedding with the traditional wedding costume in Bixad village, Romania on August 20, 2023. Every year at the end of August, the otherwise deserted streets and restaurants in Tara Oasului, a region in northwestern Romania, are flooded by locals who emigrated to the West a long time ago. They come back briefly to get married according to old local tradition or just attend such a wedding, held in a spectacular fashion. The bride wears a flamboyant costume which can weigh up to 25 kilograms. Often, the bride and groom are from the same village or from neighboring ones, even though they built a family abroad. Lucia and Ionut, who have been living in France for several years, have returned to the village of Certeze this summer to organize a wedding in the hope that it will help keep the tradition alive. Several weddings take place on the same day in one village, sometimes resulting in a clash of modernity and tradition, as well as an opportunity for the families to display the wealth they had accumulated since leaving the country. Traditional houses in the area have been replaced with modern villas, and the horse pulled cart by a limousine. More than five million Romanians are thought to be living and working abroad, making it one of the EU countries with the highest emigration rate. (Photo by Daniel Mihailescu/AFP Photo)
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