We continue to consider wedding traditions of the peoples of the world in general and wedding traditions in Russia in particular. Part four of five.
The previous article about Russian wedding traditions through the eyes of a wedding photographer.
According to wedding traditions and ceremonies of those times, the morning of the first day of the wedding began in the home of each of the newlyweds. In the groom's home, the wedding train was prepared, and in the bride's home, the bride was dressed and the dowry was prepared to be sent to the groom's home. The best man went to the girl's home and checked if everything was ready.
Then he returned, called the poezzhany (that's what the "participants" of the wedding train were called), sprinkled everyone with holy water to protect them from dark forces, asked for God's blessing and they set off on their way with traditional "poezzhany" songs. Having reached the bride's gate, the best man went to negotiate with the girl's father with a beautiful speech prepared, again in an allegorical form: "We are merchants trading in red goods. "We got lost and we ask to let us spend the night", etc. Very rarely did the negotiations end with just words; often the best man (sometimes together with the groom) had to buy the gates, after which the train moved into the yard.
Often the front doors and the bride herself were also subject to ransom. To amuse the groom, the bride was not sold immediately, but her grandmother, neighbor or relative with her face covered with a scarf was slipped in her place. Having discovered the substitution, the groom either looked for his chosen one in the house or had to buy her again.
Before leaving for the altar, a traditional wedding ceremony called "svody" was performed. In the yard or in the middle of the hut, the best man symbolically united the newlyweds to the sounds of traditional ritual songs; he either simply put the bride's hand in the groom's hand or tied their hands with a scarf or towel. Then the newlyweds walked around the hut three times in a circle. There was another, no less significant in magical interpretation, variety of such a ritual. It was performed using bread.
The best man either cut off a piece of bread from the bride's bread and the groom's bread (brought with him) and tied them together with a ribbon, or broke both breads over the heads of the young couple sitting together and again tied them with a ribbon, and then gave the tied pieces or halves to the godmother, who carried them to the table. Before the young couple left the bride's house for the church, the girl's parents blessed the children with an icon and bread for a happy life. The father put his daughter's right hand in the groom's hand with the words: "Give me something to drink, feed me, put shoes on me, dress me, send me to work and don't let anyone offend me!"
The bride, leaving her parents' house, again began to lament and grieve, even if the wedding was desired for her, and the groom was nice. In the bride's house, certain rituals were also observed to protect the wedding ceremony from dark forces. There was the so-called rite of sweeping the road. The choice of the place for sweeping was quite variable in different wedding traditions. It could be a piece of the floor in the bride's house, along which the newlyweds would walk before leaving, the road in front of the bride's house along which the wedding train would pass, the road from the church to the groom's house, etc.
This was done in order to sweep away from the newlyweds' path objects that could be cursed (stones, bunches of hair, etc.). Also, when leaving the house, the newlyweds were led through fire three times - this could be milk or bunches of hay. From the bride's house, the wedding train went to the church. The best man walked around the train again with an icon and sprinkled it with holy water. Then the entire wedding procession, and especially the newlyweds and their horses, were sprinkled with oats and hops for the well-being and fertility of the new family.
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