SARAJEVO – Sixty Muslim couples have been married in a single ceremony in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, in what organizers described one of the largest mass Islamic weddings ever held in Europe.

The event was held as Bosnian Muslim leaders wanted to encourage young people to start families by alleviating wedding costs, The BBC reported.

The Balkan country has one of the world’s highest levels of youth unemployment, and marriage and birth rates have dropped in the past decade.

Bosnia, a small country on the Balkan Peninsula, is home to three ethnic “constituent peoples”: mainly Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.

Out of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s nearly 4 million population, some 40 percent are Muslims, 31 percent Orthodox Christians and 10 percent Catholics.