We continue to consider wedding traditions of the peoples of the world in general and wedding traditions in Russia in particular. Part five and the last.
The previous article about Russian wedding traditions through the eyes of a wedding photographer.
The wedding ceremony itself is very beautiful and unique. It consisted of the sacrament of prayers, ritual actions and vows pronounced by the newlyweds under the arches of the temple. Before the wedding, the girl's braid was unbraided, and when leaving the church, two "woman's" braids were braided in its place, a women's headdress "povoynik" was put on, which completely hid all the hair (sometimes among Old Believers this happened even at the betrothal or somewhere in the interval between the betrothal and the wedding).
From the church, the wedding train departed for the groom's house. Now the best man tirelessly read prayers and vigilantly watched so that a suspicious stone or something else that could be damaged did not appear on the way. At the gate and on the threshold of the young husband's house, the ritual of "purification by fire" was repeated again (as in the bride's house).
The mother, dressed in an inside-out sheepskin coat, in the company of guests and relatives, met the young couple at the threshold of the house and showered them with oats and millet, which was supposed to protect the young family and promise them wealth. Then the groom's father came out, and together they blessed their child and young wife with an icon and bread and salt and spoke parting words. The blessed couple broke off or bit off a piece of bread, dipped it in salt and ate it, which symbolized the complete agreement of the newlyweds to henceforth be grains of one bread. It was also believed that whoever broke off a larger piece would be the master of the house. The newlyweds were seated at the wedding table on an animal skin, which was again a talisman.
The wedding feast was full of treats, merry songs and dances, there were also songs of praise, in which the newlyweds, their parents and the best man were praised (from the moment of the wedding, the bride was already cheerful and stopped wailing). After the third course, the best man turned to the groom's parents with a request to bless the newlyweds to go to bed. Before going to bed, the groom had to buy the made bed from the bed-mistress and only then could he retire with his young wife.
Although the newlyweds retired to their own places, the guests continued to feast, and this continued almost until dawn. The next morning, the matchmaker, best man and mother-in-law woke the newlyweds, took the certificates of the "honor" of the daughter-in-law and showed them to the guests. This could be a shirt or a sheet with traces of maiden innocence. Sometimes the young husband himself testified to the "purity" of his chosen one, answering traditional ritual questions prepared for this case (for example: did he break ice or trample dirt?).
Also, in the villages of Russia, to test the chastity of the newlywed, they would beat clay pots; if the pot broke, everything was done properly (it was believed that the more fragments there were, the more happiness there would be in the life of the young couple), but if not, try to convince people that the poor thing was innocent.
And if the girl turned out to be "unclean", shame fell on the heads of her parents. Their gates could be smeared with tar, or a yoke could be placed on their necks. If the "bouzheniye" was "successful", a number of traditional wedding ceremonies took place on the second day. One of these ceremonies was the "search for the lamb".
The bride hid, and the guests, led by her relatives, looked for her in her husband's house. The housekeeping skills of the girl were also tested. She was sent to fetch water with two oars on a yoke, garbage, money and grain were deliberately scattered around the hut, and the "young wife" had to clean everything up thoroughly, which happened under the very strict supervision of all the invited guests.
Then the son-in-law went to the house of the wife's parents with gratitude for their daughter. The girl's mother prepared dishes and treated her son-in-law to them, though only after he had bought them for money.
On the third day, the wedding feast moved to the bride's house, where, according to tradition, the festivities ended.