DUSHANBE, October 11, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- 95,188 festivities, including 57,000 weddings and some 15,000 circumcisions, for a total of 20.163 million somoni have been registered in the country since the beginning of the year, Odinasho Murodov, the head of the department for regulation of traditions and rituals within the Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 11.

According to him, an average cost of one wedding was 2,523 somoni (equivalent to more than US$550.00).  “96 instances of violation of the Law on Observing National Traditions and Rituals have been recorded over the first nine months of this year and those who have broken the rules have been fined a total of 324,000 somoni,” Murodov noted.

38 instances of violation of the law on observing national traditions and rituals have been recorded in Sughd province, 29 in Khatlon province, 23 in districts subordinate to the center, and six instances have been recorded in Dushanbe.