WEDDING IN THE CARPATHIANS
In the Ukrainian culture, the wedding ceremony and its traditions are the most complex, especially at Hutsuls. Beyond preparations, brides rely on a skilled person for the wedding rituals. This solemnity includes so many customs and subtleties that they need a professional to help them to precisely express, perpetuate, and sing what their parents, grandparents and ancestors impart over centuries. These mountains people are very conservative.
On the wedding day, brides stay at their respective parents houses. They kneel to thank their ascendants for the education they received. Despite the fact that they have not always been model children, they apologize and ask to be blessed before they leave the family nest. After several chants and traditions, the boy has to be the first one at church, his bride cannot wait. At the end of the ceremony, a blessed bun is divided into three parts. Each bride receives one third that he places in a kind of rain hood made for this purpose in their clothes exclusively reserved for this tradition. The last third of the bun remains in church.
Then, the wedding photography is taken on the church steps.
The bride returns alone to her parents’ home. Her husband will join her after he turned three times around the house. He will also have to negotiate with his recent brother in law, his young bride’s price while she is watching through a bun hole, her face hidden by a scarf. The whole scene is accompanied by chants.
The evening will end up at a big table where 200 guests will take place. One week later they will do it again in the new husband’s family.