Let's continue to consider modern wedding traditions and rituals of Ukraine. Part three. The previous, second article about modern wedding traditions in Ukraine...
Between the wedding feast and the registry office, there is usually a so-called wedding walk. The newlyweds, or already husband and wife, accompanied by friends, surrender to the will of a professional wedding photographer. They visit memorable places, have fun, pose for photos, in general, perform the entire ritual of the magic of a wedding photo session and video shooting.
A festive feast is never complete without shouts of "bitter". This is also a Ukrainian wedding tradition, modified almost beyond recognition. Once upon a time, the bride went around all the tables with a tray and treated each of the guests to a glass of vodka. The guest drank the treat with the words "bitter", symbolizing that he drank not water at all, put money on the tray along with the glass and kissed the bride, whoever did not put money - just contemplated her, not having the right to kiss.
Now "bitter" is a playful extortion from the newlyweds more and more kisses for the amusement of the guests. Kidnapping the bride at a wedding. There is also such a wedding tradition. This, now a playful entertainment, has far from cheerful motives earlier. With the advent of serfdom, the right to the first wedding night belonged not to the groom, as one might assume, but to the master (nobleman, lord). Who would like that? The grooms resisted this custom with all their might and the lord's serfs simply stole the bride right in the midst of the festivities, and if the groom was wealthy, he could simply pay off the lord if he gave his consent.
Thank God, the times of serfdom are long gone, and now, stealing a bride or her shoe is a very fun, and sometimes profitable, activity. Nowadays, the bride or her shoes are bought in different ways. The best man at the wedding is mainly responsible for the safety of the bride. It is he who either pays money or shines with artistic talents to order, and the more fun and amusing he dances, the better. Another unique traditional wedding ceremony of Ukrainians is putting boots (chobots) on the mother-in-law.
The meaning of this ancient Ukrainian wedding ceremony is to show the respect of the son-in-law to his mother-in-law. It happens like this: the mother-in-law is seated on a chair, and her feet are playfully smeared with ashes or mud (zeal, of course, is unnecessary here), so that the son-in-law has something to wash. As a rule, the son-in-law does not immediately get down to business, but first scares the mother-in-law a little. Here, everyone does what they can!
They can bring out an axe - "to trim her feet", or tarpaulin boots of size 58, or a metal brush to polish the heels under friendly laughter and spurring exclamations of the guests. Having shown a little obstinacy, the son-in-law kneels in front of the bride, takes off her shoes and throws them into the crowd of guests, then washes (sometimes just splashes) her feet with vodka or champagne, and then dips them with a towel - and other craftsmen manage to have time to do a foot massage! :-)
And then he puts her in new boots or shoes specially saved for this. At the end of the ceremony, the newly-made mother-in-law and son-in-law dance a cheerful dance "choboty". When the wedding feast is coming to an end, there are still four main traditional wedding ceremonies, without which the modern wedding scenario remains incomplete. This is the throwing of the wedding bouquet, the throwing of the garter, the covering of the bride (unbraiding the hair, removing the veil) and the cutting of the wedding loaf.
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