Sugar bowl (kase nabat)

During the betrothal ceremony's festive meal – at which a couple's intention to wed is proclaimed publicly – a special bowl with a large cone of hardened sugar, surrounded by smaller ones, is presented to the groom by the mother of the bride as a sign of her consent to the engagement. This custom symbolically blesses the couple with a life of fertility, purity, and sweetness. Decorated sugar cones are a central element in Jewish and Muslim wedding ceremonies throughout Central Asia and Iran. Reconstructed according to the Afghani tradition, Jerusalem, 1997, by Esther Bezalel