Since ancient times in the culture of different peoples of the worldWedding traditions were and remain some of the most vivid and original. They reveal ethnic and religious characteristics, traditions of a particular nation. After all, the wedding day is the beginning of a new life for the young, the creation of a new family for a community of people. Unfortunately, today many wedding ceremonies and traditions in Rus' have been forgotten, although interest in them has recently been revived. Ancient chronicles indicate that there were no generally accepted wedding traditions initially, different tribes had different customs. The Polyans, for example, greatly respected the sanctity of marriage, spouses were obliged to maintain peace in the family, mutual respect. But among the Drevlyans and Severyans, you could simply kidnap a girl you liked from your own or another tribe and live with her without any rituals, and even in a polygamous marriage. The gradual unification of tribes into a single state brought their traditions closer together, including wedding ones. Until the baptism of Rus, all spheres of life of the ancient Slavs were imbued with paganism, and wedding ceremonies were no exception: they prayed to pagan deities for favor with the new family, danced around fires, and doused themselves with water. With the baptism of Rus, new customs began to emerge, which significantly affected the order of the wedding, but for many centuries, right up to the present day, echoes of paganism can still be heard in Russian rites and traditions. There was a merger of two beliefs, which created a unique culture characteristic only of Rus. The main change in the wedding ceremony was the need to consecrate the marriage by the church. Otherwise, the wedding had the same character: mass festivities, entertainment, a "mountain feast", often lasting 3-4 days. By the 16th century, the order of the wedding ceremony had developed in Rus', which clearly regulated the role of each participant, wedding clothes, stages of the wedding and even the dishes served on the table. Russian wedding ceremonies were religious and magical actions designed to give the new family health, prosperity, harmony in relationships, and children. In addition, one of the main tasks of such a ceremony was to protect the young couple from the evil eye and damage, since it was believed that on this day they were most vulnerable. Both people and wedding attributes were called upon to protect the newlyweds. Thus, the bride's veil was supposed to hide her from evil spirits. The groom's friend and the bridesmaid should always be with them to "confuse" the spirits. Wedding ceremonies for widowed people were already held in a more simplified manner. Traditionally, the most suitable time for a wedding in Rus' was considered autumn and winter. This was a time free from agricultural work. In spring and summer, only marriages were concluded due to circumstances, for example, the pregnancy of the bride, and in May, marriages were almost never concluded. In addition, there were not many days suitable for a wedding: weddings were prohibited during Lent, Maslenitsa, Easter Week, Christmastide, the eve of the Orthodox twelve great feasts, and also the eve of Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, the day before the patronal feasts of the church in which the Sacrament of Marriage was planned to be performed.
Wedding preparations
Prepared for marriage from the first years of life:girls learned to run a household and prepare a dowry. The wedding ceremony in Rus' required the bride to present each relative of the groom with a towel on the wedding day, the groom with an embroidered shirt and underpants, and his mother with three shirts, a length of fabric for a sarafan, and a headscarf. Brides were chosen at bride shows, which were held during spring and summer festivities or patronal feasts. The groom's parents chose the bride, coordinating the choice with all the relatives; the guy's opinion was usually not asked. Marriages without the blessing of their parents were extremely rare, were considered unhappy, and were condemned by society. Since girls usually did not have the right to choose, they often resorted to fortune telling, trying to predict what their betrothed would be like and when the wedding would take place. Fortune telling was most often done on Christmastide or on the day of the Intercession, by dreams, a mirror, reflection in water, on candles. Returning to the Russian wedding ceremony, we will say that after the groom's relatives agreed on the bride's candidacy, they chose a mediator - a matchmaker or matchmaker, quick-tongued fellow villagers who knew how to settle such matters.
Matchmaking
The day, time and route of the matchmakers were kept secret.The matchmaking ceremony was accompanied by many magical actions. Negotiations were conducted either with the bride's father, or with her older brother or mother. For the second, "official" matchmaking, the bride's parents were already waiting for the matchmakers and had prepared a table, lit candles and lamps. If the bride's parents agreed to their daughter's marriage, a marriage contract was drawn up - a "row record", stipulating the entire range of issues related to the marriage being concluded. The bride gave the groom a deposit - a scarf, which had great legal force. A few days after this, the bride's father or her older brother came to the groom's house to inspect his household. If the bride's parents were satisfied with the inspection of the groom's household, they invited his parents to the bride's house. For the girl, this was the first wedding test. She was dressed up, a veil was thrown over her face. The matchmaker started a conversation with her, often the girl was forced to demonstrate her skills, forced to walk, checking if she was limping, the groom's father could look at her face. If he kissed the girl on both cheeks, it was a sign that he liked the girl. In this case, the viewing ended with a "drunken feast". Soon they arranged a conspiracy, during which the drafting of the marriage certificate was completed, and the dates of the wedding were set. The conspiracy had legal force, it ended with the ritual of shaking hands: the fathers of the young people shook hands, then gave each other their hands, wrapped in scarves, and then exchanged a business handshake. Then they exchanged pies, hugged each other with wishes: "Be my matchmaker and new relatives."
Betrothal
The betrothal ceremony followed the shaking of hands (orpilgrimage), at this time the young couple kissed three times, then exchanged rings. The engagement was reinforced by a drinking bout or singing, - a joint feast. At this time, the bride distributed the prepared gifts (towels, shirts, towels) to her future relatives, treated the guests to wine, bowing to them to the ground. After the betrothal, the bride was called "the betrothed one". From that moment on, she did not leave the house, mourning her maiden life. The groom, on the contrary, did not sit at home, every day he visited the bride's house with gifts. The evening before the wedding was called "the bachelorette party", the bride said goodbye to her family, maiden life, freedom. Her lamentations and sad songs of her girlfriends were heard. At the same time, the ceremony of unbraiding the maiden braid was performed. The girl gave the ribbon previously woven into the braid to her girlfriends. With lamentations, her girlfriends escorted her to the bathhouse, where they steamed her with the brooms sent by the groom.
Wedding
In the old days, the wedding ceremony, which was usuallywas held in the evening, called the Judgment of God. In the morning, the bridesmaids dressed the hero of the occasion: washed, dressed, hung jewelry. Silver was put in the water for washing. After this, the bride was seated under the icons, wedding songs were sung to her. Then, when everything was ready for the arrival of the groom, the symbol of maidenhood - a crown - was placed on the bride's head and two matchmakers solemnly led her out by the arms. The dancing women walked in front, followed by the karavainiki, then the candle bearers with a massive wedding candle. Then they carried the wedding rings. The guests sat down at the table, and the matchmaker asked the parents for their blessing to twist and comb the bride's hair, then removed her veil and crown, combed the bride with a comb in honey, twisted her hair and put on a kika, after which she covered the bride with a veil again. During this ceremony, the candle-bearers held a piece of cloth between the bride and groom. The feast continued. After the third course, the matchmaker asked the parents for a blessing, and the newlyweds were taken to the church. The guests stood up, the bride's parents held icons in their hands. The newlyweds bowed to the priest, the bride's parents handed her over to the groom. The father hit the bride with a whip, ordering her to obey her husband, and handed the whip to the newlywed. After the wedding, the bride's veil was removed. The entire wedding ceremony was accompanied by a host of popular superstitions that had developed over the centuries: who holds the candle higher, who is the first to step up to the lectern, etc. When leaving the church, the newlyweds were showered with hemp and flax seeds. The groom's parents met them at the outskirts or gates of the house, the father-in-law with an icon, and the mother-in-law with bread and salt. The bread was broken into two halves over the newlyweds. The newlyweds bowed to their parents' feet, and they blessed them. The couple walked around the wedding table three times, then the wedding feast began.
Wedding Feast
The newlyweds did not eat anything at the wedding table,They drank, but only accepted congratulations. When the third course was brought to the table, the newlyweds were taken out to the hayloft, to the bridal bed. With the departure of the newlyweds, the feast flared up - they set the "mountain" table, to which the guests from the bride's side usually drove up. During the night, the newlyweds were unceremoniously raised from their beds several times and taken out to the guests, who did not stop having fun. Early in the morning, the newlyweds were woken up again. They were dressed and taken to the table, where the fun continued. True, this was already, as we now say, a "sweet table". A little later, since the drunken guests were no longer up to the newlyweds, they, not having had enough sleep and tired, could quietly leave the feast and go to rest. On the same day, a ritual bath was prepared for the newlyweds. They were seen off to wash with songs, sweeping the path with brooms. In the bath, the matchmaker checked the newlywed's shirt to detect traces of virginity. Often the fact of the young woman's innocence was demonstrated to fellow villagers. On the third day of the wedding, the young woman was tested - she had to show her skills as a worker and housewife. The young wife stoked the stove, swept the floors, cooked dinner, and the guests had to interfere with her in every possible way. Traditionally, a Russian wedding lasted three days. We recommend reading:
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