The history of the culture of each nation includes a wide variety of rituals and beliefs. And, probably, they were the most colorful and varied.

First of all, ancient folk beliefs influenced the formation of the aforementioned.

The history of the formation of wedding ceremonies in Russia

Wedding rites in Russia have their roots in pagan times, before the adoption of Christianity, people asked various deities for favor with the newly formed family, conducting all kinds of rituals for this. After the baptism of Russia, a merger of beliefs took place, which gave rise to a unique system of wedding ceremonies peculiar only to it. Foreign traditions also had a considerable influence on the traditional Russian wedding ceremony. So, for example, the exchange of wedding rings and wedding candles came to the territory of Russia from ancient Greece, the shedding of newlyweds with linen - from the Romans. All this gave an extraordinary flavor to Russian wedding ceremonies.

Pre-wedding ceremonies

According to the ancient tradition, only the groom's parents were engaged in the choice of the bride in Russia, and most often his opinion was not taken into account. At that time, spring-summer festivities were very popular, at which a kind of presentation of brides took place.

Girls in their best outfits with songs walked through the villages, giving them the opportunity to take a good look at themselves. Not only the beauty of the girl was evaluated, but also her ability to manage the household, the skill of needlework, and most importantly her dowry. After the choice was made, matchmakers were sent to the family of the future bride.

Matchmaking

Ancient legends say that for a successful marriage, it was necessary to find excellent matchmakers. They were chosen from married people with a talent for oratory and persuasion. The most successful days for matchmaking were considered Thursday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.

In order to avoid the evil eye, the names of the matchmakers and the matchmaking day itself were kept secret, and they had to set off on their journey only after sunset. In no case was it possible to talk to anyone along the way. In some territories of ancient Russia, matchmakers were thrown headdresses in front of the road or whipped. Arriving at the house of a potential bride, the matchmakers began to glibly praise the groom, not forgetting to look at everything around. If the girl's parents agreed, the next stage of wedding ceremonies began - the bride.

Smotriny

Approximately a week after the ceremony of matchmaking, the bride-to-be took place - such a peculiar presentation of the bride to the groom's parents. In addition to the future newlyweds, relatives from both sides, as well as close friends of the girl, who accompanied the entire ceremony with songs, were always present at the bride.

It was a difficult test for the future bride. She could talk during the ceremony only in the most extreme cases, often she was asked to demonstrate her needlework skills or cook dinner for future relatives gathered under the stern gaze. If the presentation was successful, the groom's father kissed the bride on both cheeks as a sign that he liked the girl. On the bride, the girl could refuse to marry. However, this was quite rare, since in those distant times, few girls dared to argue with their parents.

Collusion

After the bride, a rite of conspiracy took place, at which all the main issues regarding the upcoming wedding were resolved. When the parties agreed, a young woman was invited to the hut, who from now on was called the bride. Future newlyweds kissed icons and each other.

Refusal of the wedding from that moment was impossible and was considered a terrible sin.

The day before the wedding

On the eve of the wedding, the bride was sure to melt the bath - a kind of symbol of farewell to girlhood and stepfather's house. Her girlfriends accompanied her there, carrying with them a beautifully decorated broom. All this was accompanied by songs and special rituals that were supposed to protect the bride from the evil eye, spoilage and strengthen her connection with her future husband. The girl was braided for the last time with a girl's braid, and then a kind of bachelorette party began, at which songs were sung. But in some places of ancient Russia, instead of singing cheerful songs, the girl was supposed to cry bitterly for her girlhood.

The groom at this time also did not get bored. With friends and male relatives, they cheerfully celebrated the end of his single life, drinking mead and beer and recalling various stories.

Bride's wedding dress

First of all, in the morning, the bride washed her face with cold water, and then went to her parents for a blessing. After that, the ceremony of dressing the bride began. First of all, the naked body of the girl was wrapped with a bast in order to protect her from the spell of evil sorcerers. A little wool, linen and soap were put under the bosom, so that her clothes were always of high quality and clean. Gingerbread and pretzels were hung around the neck - symbols of a well-fed life.

The traditional wedding dress of the bride in ancient Russia was very different from the modern version. But still white was a mandatory component of it. The outfit consisted of a shirt and a wide skirt or sundress. The shirt was skillfully decorated with embroidery, each element of which had its own symbolic meaning. The skirt and the bottom of the sundress were of variegated colors and hemmed with beads at the bottom in order to protect themselves from the evil forces living underground. In addition to the traditional braid, the bride's head could be decorated with ribbons and fresh flowers.

Groom's wedding attire

The main element of the groom's wedding dress in Russia was a scarf given to him by the bride. They tied it around his neck, or he looked out of his trouser pocket. The costume consisted of light trousers and a bright, preferably linen or silk shirt. Immediately before the wedding, the groom was girded with a luxurious embroidered towel.

ransom

Not a single wedding in Russia took place without a ransom. While the bride was dressed up for the wedding, the groom's family was preparing for the ransom of the young. According to one of the traditions, the young man had to make all the gifts for ransom with his own hands. The first trials awaited the groom on the way to the girl's house. As they say, the road to happiness is never easy. Relatives and friends of the bride did everything possible to make the groom feel it for himself.

The groom had to saw through wide logs to prove how strong he was. After passing road tests, he ended up at the bride's house, where his parents were waiting for him with a new portion of surprises. The groom had to guess several tricky riddles, and he was fined for the wrong answer. Entering the bride's room, he had to guess his betrothed among the equally dressed girls sitting with their backs to him. As a result, having finally guessed his future wife, the groom took a place near her, and the bride's parents blessed them, after which the young went to church. The road in front of them was carefully swept, so that none of the ill-wishers could throw them a charmed little thing.

Wedding

Before the adoption of Christianity, the young went to the meadow, where they put on special wreaths, round dances were held around a decorated birch, ritual songs were sung. At the same time, evil spirits were driven away from the young in every way with water, smoke and fire. With the advent of Christianity, the ancient wedding customs of ancient Russia were replaced by church ones. When leaving the church, the young were showered with flaxseeds.

After the wedding, everyone went to the groom's house, where the wedding feast began. The most interesting thing is that the young people did not eat anything at the table, but only accepted congratulations. And at the third change of dishes they were escorted to the matrimonial bed, and the feast flared up even more. In the morning, the newlyweds were woken up, the matchmaker showed all the curious the bride's shirt with traces of innocence, and after the young people were escorted to the heated bath.

Wedding traditions in Russia were distinguished by their incredible color, they were fun and enthusiastic and deserve to be remembered.

The Russian wedding originates in antiquity, combining both ancient Russian pagan rites and newer, Christian customs. At the crossroads of cultures, time-tested, wedding ceremonies in Russia are known for their complexity and beauty. As a rule, the celebration was preceded by a long one.

From antiquity to our days, with love from distant ancestors

Preparation for the celebration

Matchmaking

As many people know, the tradition of a Russian wedding implies the beginning with the custom of matchmaking - the groom's relatives loudly, with songs and rich gifts, went to the bride's house, where the matchmakers told how good the future husband was and how rich his house was. It was believed that the bride and groom must necessarily correspond to each other in terms of financial situation.

Unequal marriages were extremely rare and were considered rather an exception, and therefore parents considered well-being and health to be an important quality when choosing a life partner for their child.

Smotriny

Next, the rite of the Russian wedding involves the bride - in fact the same as matchmaking, but a little later and exactly the opposite. Now the bride's relatives sought to show that the girl was quite good-looking and economical. At bridesmaids, towels or tablecloths embroidered by the bride by hand were often used as gifts - this was supposed to show the girl's talent for needlework.

If both parties were satisfied, an engagement was concluded and preparations for the celebration began. A wedding in Russia was traditionally celebrated in autumn or winter - so, according to the Orthodox tradition, the new family was under the auspices of the Mother of God, which contributed to the well-being and health of future heirs.

Bachelor and bachelorette party

The wedding ceremony in Russia also included a bachelor and bachelorette party, which took place three days before the celebration. And the bachelorette party was not fun at all: the bride was supposed to cry. For this, the Russian wedding tradition suggested inviting all the girls of the village, relatives and friends, as well as a special guest - a vytnitsa, to the house. They (mourners) were very respected in the villages, and her presence at the bachelorette party was considered mandatory.

Vytnitsa - often an aged woman - started a sad song, "crying", and the bride was bound to cry. This is necessary to say goodbye to your carefree youth with tears. Even if the bride was not unhappy at all, and really wanted to get married, it was necessary to cry, and the voice of the vytnitsa created the right mood. This is not to say that “crying” is just a song.

A real vytnitsa, performing crying, often picked up words on the go, falling into a kind of trance, and all the women present eventually cried with her and the bride

The wedding ceremony in ancient Russia further implied that the female part of the bride's family and her friends take the girl to the bathhouse, where all together, to the songs, wash her before the upcoming celebration. The groom by this time was also supposed to be in the bath, but the bachelor party was even less fun - the young man had to spend that night alone and in silence, so that:

• Think about future marriage.
• Become a husband from a boy.
• Prepare for the challenging role of the head of the family.

Bachelorette and stag parties remained in the modern tradition, but in a completely different quality

As before, the goal of the bachelor and bachelorette parties is to say goodbye to single life. But if earlier it was customary to see her off with tears, today young people prefer to take a “walk” for the last time.

young outfits

The ancient wedding customs of the Russian people also mention the attire of the young at the time of the celebration. And if the groom was supposed to look rich, but the bride was supposed to dress up in a dress that she herself sewed and embroidered. Depending on the wealth of the family, the dress could be embroidered with both colored thread and gold, and even pearls. The richer the family, the more jewelry on the bride's dress.

Walking in the whole village

Ransom or how they proved their prowess and strength

The wedding day began with a ransom - the groom with friends and relatives loudly, with songs, shouts and bells, came in a sleigh or wagon to the bride's house. The brighter the carts, the louder the procession, the better, everyone in the village should have known that today is a wedding.

In front of the bride's house, an "ambush" could await the groom - the brothers or other relatives of the bride could block the way to the house and demand a fare - "ransom".

At the very house of the bride, the groom again faced difficulties - he had to complete several tasks, prove his prowess and strength.

Such a demonstration initially had all the seriousness and practical value - rural life in Russia was not simple, and only a man strong in body and spirit could adequately provide his future wife and children with everything necessary.

The patriarchal tradition adopted in Russia can also be traced in wedding ceremonies. The man not only made decisions, but also took responsibility for his family, providing a truly "man's hand and shoulder" to his beloved keeper of the hearth and his heirs

Ancient wedding feast

Of course, in ancient Russia it was impossible to simply order - the groom's family was responsible for the wedding feast. The wedding had to be rich, the young family, especially his mother and sisters, were busy with the table, decorating the house and waiting for guests. According to tradition, all acquaintances, neighbors, friends and just passers-by were invited to the wedding - anyone could look at the celebration and pay respect to the young willing.

The wedding feast, according to Russian tradition, lasted three days, and all three days the young had to be present at the table. At the same time, they were not allowed to drink alcohol, they were allowed to eat at a minimum, and drink only water. Thus, parents contributed to the speedy appearance of grandchildren. On the second day of the wedding, the newlyweds were sent to a specially prepared "bed", where on the third day they let everyone in to show the bride's nightgown and prove her virtue and purity.

Gifts for newlyweds

It was customary to give gifts not only to the newlyweds, but also to their parents. Popular wedding gifts, as today, were household utensils, dishes, textiles ... as well as ceremonial items.

For example, at the wedding, the groom was often given a whip - as a warning to the bride, so that she "knew her place and did not argue with her husband." For the most part, such a thing, of course, had a symbolic meaning.

Since ancient times in Russia it is customary to give young people things that could simplify their family life.

Modern Russian traditions

Today, young people can arrange a wedding feast as they see fit, and the old Russian wedding ceremonies are, rather, recommendatory in nature. In ancient times, their observance was strictly mandatory.

By the way, when planning a wedding feast, do not forget to pay attention to the little things:

• Choose from a varied menu.
• Take care of transportation for all guests.
• Do not forget about the spare bouquet and garter for the throw.
• Pick up for a wedding.

To observe the wedding traditions of ancient Russia or to trust the trend of changeable fashion is a personal matter for each couple. It is only important to make sure that the main day remains in memory for a long time as the brightest and most joyful in the life of a young family.

RUSSIAN OLD WEDDING TRADITIONS

Why are they celebrating a wedding?

The highest, main goal of each wedding is to do everything possible so that the young family becomes exactly the family where the harmony of human life is affirmed. It has become exactly what it is created for - a fortress, a support, a single whole. So that it does not collapse from an unkind word, an envious look, so that any business goes well in it and there are no quarrels. So that what any woman and any man who decides to start a family dreams about - love, the warmth of a home, mutual understanding, health, prosperity and joy. After all, it is not for nothing that the word wedding means to bring together, to marry. Matchmaking has the same root as the word wedding.

However, the wedding, with all its definitions, purpose and form, is also the highest sacrament of human life. The fire of the family hearth is lit so that it warms and does not go out. To be passed down from generation to generation, increasing and protecting the family. In the distant past, the parents of the two sides, connecting the branches of their clans, families, took on a huge responsibility, because the family determined and determines the future fate of people, clan, community, state, nation in the name of preserving life on earth, in the name of the coming century and immortality. Will there be prosperity, peace, advice and love in the new family, will there be children who continue the family, and will they be healthy? To build a happy future, the parents of the young and their relatives prayed. The family was a sacred union.

This union began with a wedding. At the wedding, all people become kinder, more generous, happier, more significant and more fun. It gives a feeling of strength and fullness of life, a happy future, therefore, before celebrating a wedding, it would be more correct if you know on what basis to build a strong, reliable home, family and love, as it was done before, and how it is done now, why, when and why . To get married, and even more so to get married, should be prudent, thoughtful, because marriage has always been considered an extremely serious matter. In ancient times, long before the wedding, matchmakers carefully analyzed several tribes of the family with whom they would have to converge through the young, took into account the diseases that the ancestors suffered from, their character, physical and spiritual strength, ability to work, disposition, attitude towards God and people, so that the main thing always won in the family - goodness and mutual love, because there are no accidents in life. Every happy home makes the whole world more beautiful. So it was in ancient times, so it is now.

From the history of ancient Russian wedding ceremonies

Royal wedding. How Russian tsars got married

Famous Russian historians I.E. Zabelin, V.O. Klyuchevsky, E.P. Karpovich in their works described the life of Russian tsars and queens, solemn ceremonies and rituals, among which there are descriptions of royal weddings. On the eve of their wedding celebration, modern brides and grooms will undoubtedly be interested in plunging into the atmosphere of the distant past and learning how Russian sovereigns chose brides and celebrated weddings.

So, when the time came to marry the sovereign or the heir to the state, then he chose daughters from all the families of the service, that is, the military nobility, as brides. To this end, the sovereign sent letters to all cities and all estates with the strictest order that all patrimonial landowners immediately go with their daughters to the city to the city governors appointed for that, who should look at their daughters as the bride of the sovereign.

The main goal of such voivodship shows was the beauty and kindness of her health and character. After the review, all the selected first beauties of the region were entered into a special list, with an appointment to come to Moscow at a special time, where they were preparing a new review, even more legible, already in the palace, with the help of the closest people of the sovereign. Finally, the chosen ones from the chosen ones appeared on the bride to the groom himself, who also indicated his bride after many “trials”. About Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, they say that in order to elect a third wife and him, “brides from all cities were brought to Alexandrov Sloboda, both noble and ignoble, numbering more than two thousand. Each one was presented to him separately. First he chose 24, and after 12, from which he chose his bride.

The father of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, Grand Duke Vasily, having decided to marry, made public throughout the state that the most beautiful girls, noble and ignoble, be chosen for him, without any distinction. More than five hundred of them were brought to Moscow, according to another evidence - 1500; three hundred of them were chosen, out of three hundred - 200, after 100, finally - only 10; out of these ten, the bride was chosen.

After the election, the royal bride was solemnly introduced into the royal special mansions, where she would live, and left until the time of the wedding in the care of court boyars and settlers, faithful and God-fearing wives, among which the first place was immediately occupied by the closest relatives of the chosen bride, usually her own mother. or aunt and other relatives.

The introduction of the bride into the royal chambers was accompanied by the rite of her royal consecration. Here, with a prayer of naming, they placed a royal maiden crown on her, called her a princess, and called her a new royal name. After that, the courtyard people of the “Tsaritsyna rank” kissed the cross of the new empress, swore allegiance. Following the fulfillment of the rite of naming the new queen, letters were sent to the church department in Moscow and to all the bishoprics with an order to pray to God for the health of the newly-named queen, that is, to commemorate her name in litanies along with the name of the sovereign.

From that moment on, the personality of the sovereign's bride acquired full royal significance and completely stood out from among her subjects and from among her kinship, so that even her father did not dare to call her his daughter, and her relatives did not dare to call her their own.

Wedding of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich

The full title of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in which they tried to designate all the possessions and tribes subject to the sovereign, in the first half of the seventeenth century was as follows: “The Grand Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich, Autocrat of all Great and Small Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Siberia, Sovereign of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Tver, Yugorsky, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgarian and others, Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novgorod, Nisovsky lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udorsky, Obdorsky, Kondia and all Northern countries Sovereign and Sovereign of the Iberian lands, Kartal and Georgian kings and Kabardian lands, Circassian and Mountain princes and many other Eastern, Western and Northern possessions and lands Otchich and Dedich and Heir, Sovereign and Possessor.

The coronation ceremony of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was performed on September 28, 1645. After the coronation, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich consulted with the patriarch and with the authorities, and with the boyars, and the Duma people were told that he should be married legally; both the patriarch and the authorities blessed such a good deed to a combination of legitimate love, and sentenced the boyars and duma people.

And having known the tsar from some of his neighbors, a daughter, a good maiden (Evfimia Vsevolozhskaya), with growth and beauty, and full of intelligence, ordered to take to his yard and give it to his sisters, princesses, and ordered to keep honor over her, as well as over the sisters of the princesses, until fun and joy come true. And from time immemorial in the Russian land, the crafty devil sowed his weeds: if a person, even a little, comes to glory, and honor, and wealth, they cannot but hate him. Some boyars and close people had daughters, but the tsar did not have a single thought about them for marriage: and those maidens, mothers and sisters who lived with the princesses, envious of this, intended to commit that chosen princess in order to ruin her, because they hoped that after her the tsar would take for himself the daughter of another great boyar or neighbor; and soon they did just that, drenching her with poisons. The king, however, was very sad about this, and for many days he lost food, and then he did not think about any high-born maidens, since he learned that something was done out of hatred and envy.

After that, it happened to the sovereign to be in the church, here he saw two daughters of a certain Moscow nobleman Ilya Miloslavsky. He ordered one of them, the smaller one, to be taken upstairs. The king, having come to the mansions, looked at that girl and fell in love with her, called her the princess, handed her over to his sisters for observance, put the royal robe on her and put her to save wives, faithful and God-fearing, until the hour of marriage comes.

Putting aside all state and zemstvo affairs, the tsar began to think with his princes, boyars, devious and duma people about his marriage, which of the boyars, duma or neighbor people and from their wives to choose which wedding rank, instead of father and mother, and into sedentary boyars and boyars, poezzhane, thousand boyars, boyars, buddies, matchmakers, candle makers, koroviniki, stable ranks and butlers, as well as sitting boyars and boyars, buddies and matchmakers from the princess’s side.

And after thinking about it for many days, for such his royal joy, he told the Duma clerks to paint on a painting, who should be in what wedding rank, and after writing that painting, bring it to themselves. And his royal decree ordered the boyars, deceitful, thoughtful and neighbor people to say in front of many people that by the day on which he will have joy, in the rank where he was indicated to be, they would be ready without places, not by birth and not by rank. And how will he have joy in those days, who from the boyars, devious, thoughtful and close people by his breed or in some places will cause trouble and from this there will be a handicap in the wedding business, for his disobedience and confusion to be executed by death, without any mercy, and the estate to take him and his fiefdoms to the king.

Wedding bureaucrats are like that. On the royal side, the first rank: the father and mother are seated (planted), which are for the royal father and mother. Second rank: trainees, archpriest with a cross, thousand, eight boyars; the thousandth on the train is a big man, and the trainees go with the tsar and tsarina in the church at the wedding and sit at the tables above all people; friend, friend, - their rank (that is, duty) is as follows: guests are called to the wedding, and at the wedding, speeches are made from the thousandth and from the king and sent with gifts; matchmakers, friends' wives, their rank is as follows: they twist the queen (braid a braid), and protect, and put on a dress, and take it off; candlestick: as the queen is wrapped before the wedding, he is holding a candle at that time; korovaini who carry bread to and from church on a stretcher; equestrian with his rank. The third rank: seated (planted) boyars and boyars, 12 people each, who sit as guests at the tables, together with the royal father and mother, but do not go to church with the king. Fourth rank: the butler, who stands at the stand with food and drink.

On the queen's side, the first rank is father and mother relatives; the second rank - sedentary boyars and noblewomen, the third rank - boyfriend, matchmaker, wife's squads, candlestick, koroviniki.

Eating and drinking should be carried by the stewards in front of the king and queen and on all tables in front of official people and be among themselves without a dispute, to whom where ordered according to the painting.

On the eve of marriage, the tsar has a table for boyars and boyars, for the father and mother of brides. The king and his bride sit at a special table. Before eating, the royal confessor, the archpriest, blesses the king and princess with a cross and orders them to kiss among themselves. Then the boyars and boyars congratulate the tsar and princess on their betrothal. After the table, the tsar lets the princess go to his sisters, and the boyars and their wives go home.

On the morning of the wedding day, the tsar visits the first cathedral church (in the Assumption Cathedral) and prays, after the prayer service the patriarch blesses the tsar with a cross and sprinkles with holy water, then the tsar kisses the images and holy relics and asks the patriarch for blessings on his marriage, the patriarch blesses him word. From the cathedral the king goes to another (Arkhangelsk), where the former kings are buried, and sends singing to the dead; saying goodbye at their coffins, he goes to his place.

The chamber in which the celebration should take place is “dressed up” - upholstered with velvet and large Turkish and Persian carpets are laid. For the king and his princess they put a royal place, and in front of him is a table; tables are also set up for boyars and boyars.

The king at this time dresses up in all his royal attire and orders the new princess to also dress up in royal attire, except for the crown; a girl's crown is placed on her head. At the same time, the boyars and all wedding ranks dress in golden clothes. When everything is arranged, the sovereign is informed about this and he orders the princess to her father and mother, all the rank of her half, to go with her to that chamber and await his coming. When the princess enters the chamber with all her rank, she will be seated in the place arranged for her, and all those present await the royal coming, standing at their places where they are arranged to sit.

When the king is informed of this, his confessor will begin to say a prayer, and the king and his entire rank pray to the images; after the prayer, the confessor blesses the king and the wedding ceremony with the cross. Druzhki and the wedding ceremony are blessed by the king's father and mother, who were planted to go to the newlywed bride; then the king is blessed by them, and the father and mother give their blessing with the words: “Blessed be God!” Then come the archpriest, the wedding rite and the tsar, before him go the koroviniki with bread.

The archpriest enters the chamber first, then the rank and the king, at their entrance the princess and her rank stand. Upon entering, the archpriest, the rank and the king pray to the images, and then the friends are blessed by the father and mother of the bride to sit down for the newlywed and their daughter in their place, and they bless them with a word. When the tsar and the princess sit down on the same pillow, the boyars and the entire wedding rite will also sit down at the tables in their places, and the stewards begin to put dishes. The archpriest reads the prayer "Our Father" before eating.

Then the groomsmen begin to be blessed by the father and mother of the bride with a braid of chesati, and the archpriest and the wedding rite will begin to eat and drink, and the king does not eat anything. As they begin to scratch and twist the braid, the king and princess will be covered with a veil and the candlesticks hold the cover, and the matchmakers comb and twist the braid. At this time, gifts are placed on the plates with bread and cheese, the fly from the newlywed, and they are first brought to the priest, the father and mother of the newlywed, then to the thousandth, travellers, boyars and boyars and other wedding ranks. Also, to the royal father and mother, to the princesses, to the planted boyars and boyars, they send bread, cheese and gifts with a bride-to-be friend.

Twisting the newlywed, they cover her with the same veil. After the third course, the archpriest reads a prayer, and the friends are blessed by their father and mother to go to the king with the princess with the train for the wedding, and they bless them. Then the father and mother bless the king and the newlywed with images overlaid with gold with stones and pearls, and, taking their daughter by the hand, give her into the hands of the king and say goodbye. The archpriest blesses everyone with the cross, and the procession heads to the church where the confessor serves (Annunciation Cathedral). From the chamber, the king goes to the church with the princess together and leads her by the right hand. At this time, all the bells begin to ring and in all churches they pray for the health of the king and princess.

At the entrance to the church, the archpriest blesses everyone with a cross. The tsar and the princess stand in the middle of the church, near the altar, on the footboards of the golden band. On the one hand, the king holds his friend by the arm, and the matchmaker holds the princess. The archpriest, having put on a vestment, begins to crown them according to their rank, and at that time the princess is opened. Then the archpriest puts church crowns on them, and after the wedding he brings them from one vessel to drink French red wine, then removes church crowns from them, and a crown is placed on the king.

Having finished the rite, the archpriest teaches them how to live: not to be angry with each other, to be in obedience to the husband’s wife, only because of some guilt the husband can teach her lightly with a rod, because the husband is the head of the wife at the church; live in purity and fear of God, observe holidays and fasts, go to the church of God, give alms, often consult with the spiritual father, because he will teach for all that is good. Having finished the teaching, the archpriest, taking the queen by the hand, hands her to her husband and orders them to make a kiss among themselves, and after kissing the queen is covered. Then the archpriest and the whole wedding ceremony congratulate the king and queen.

After that, the king and queen go to the royal chambers. Tysyatsky sends forward a friend to the tsar's and tsaritsyn's fathers and mothers, to the planted boyars and boyars to say that the tsar and the tsarina were married in good health and are going to them, and they answer that they are waiting for their coming; during the return procession, all the bells also ring.

During the wedding, the royal and tsarina's father and mother, boyars and boyars will all come together in the same chamber. At the entrance of the king and queen into the chamber, the archpriest blesses them with a cross, and the father and mother of the king blesses them with images. Then fathers and mothers, boyars and boyars congratulate them on their legal marriage. Then the tsar and the tsarina sit at their special table, and the boyars and the wedding rank at their tables; everyone begins to drink and eat, and eat until the third dish is brought - the swan. Then the friend is blessed by the father and mother and by the thousands to go to the newlywed with the newlywed to rest, and they bless them with a word. The king and queen go to the bedchamber, they are escorted by their father and mother and a few other people; seeing off, they return as before to the table, and eat and drink.

And as soon as the king and queen begin to rest, at that time the equerry rides around that chamber on a horse, drawing his sword out, throughout the night; and no one comes close to that place.

The next morning, soap dishes are prepared for the king and queen. When the tsar is informed that the tsarina has left the soapbox and is ready, the tsar with his whole train goes to the tsarina; the queen at that time is in all her attire and in the royal crown. Officials congratulate the tsar and tsarina, then the tsarina brings soap gifts to the tsar, the boyars and the entire wedding ceremony. After that, the tsar with the travelers goes to the patriarch, the patriarch blesses him and congratulates him; from the patriarch, the tsar goes to his churches and prays.

When the time for dinner comes, the king and queen eat in the same chamber where the rite began; they sit down at their table, and the bureaucrats and boyars are in their former places. This table was called "prince". After dinner, they put all sorts of vegetables, sugars, berries and other curiosities on the table, and at that time the king and queen and all the ranks stand; the planted father and mother and the princesses, the sedentary boyars and boyars and the thousandth one will begin to bless the tsar and the tsarina with salaried images, and then the tsar and the tsarina are all presented with velvets, atlases, damask, sables, gold rings, silver goblets, etc.

Also on the third day, the king has a table from the newlywed queen and it is called "princess". After the vegetable table, the king and queen will begin to bless the images of the queen's father and mother and her relatives, the sedentary boyars and boyars will also bring gifts.

When this fun happens, then in the royal court and in the hallways they play trumpets and beat timpani, at night firewood is lit in the courtyards for light.

On the fourth day, the patriarch, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, archimandrites and abbots come to dinner with the king. After dinner, the patriarch and the authorities bless the tsar and tsarina with images, then bring them gifts, like the boyars. Boyars are ordered to accept images and gifts from the patriarch and high authorities. Then the king and queen bring them goblets and ladles of wine, and the authorities, having drunk for their sovereign health, go home. Then alms in money and various gifts are sent to the patriarch and authorities from the king and queen.

In the same way, on other days there are tables for stewards, Moscow nobles, guests, hundreds of elders and for city elected townspeople. They also bring gifts to the king and queen, and those gifts are accepted by the king himself, and there is no queen at that time.

Priests, deacons and servants of cathedral and other churches are fed on the royal table for more than one day, otherwise food and drink is sent to the house. They are also given money so that they pray to God for state health, 10.5 rubles each. and less, up to half, depending on the churches. In the cities they are also ordered to distribute prayer money, half against Moscow churches. Stolniks, solicitors, tenants are sent from Moscow to monasteries with mercy and prayer money to feed the blacks; they give 5, 3, a ruble, a half and less each, depending on the person, and a towel and two scarves; and they bless those people with images and give from the monastery treasury whatever happens.

After the festivities, the tsar and the tsarina go to Moscow monasteries and pray, and they feed the blacks and give them alms: archimandrites, abbots and cellars 20, 15, and 10 rubles each, cathedral ones from 5 to a ruble and a towel and two scarves each. The monastic authorities with the brethren bless the king and queen with salaried images and offer bread. Then the tsar and the tsarina go to almshouses and prisons and distribute alms to the prisoners, the poor and the poor, at a ruble and fifty per person. There are many thousands of such money. Many criminals are released into the wild, except for the great murderers.

The tsar favors the father of the tsarina, and his father-in-law, and his family and elevates him from a low degree to a high one, rewards him with his royal treasury, and sends others to the cities for the voivodeship and in Moscow on orders, gives estates and estates; they are getting richer with those estates and estates, voivodeships and clerks.

When the time comes for the prince to be born, the queen goes to the soap-house, and with her the grandmother and several women.

When a child is born, they let the king know and send for a confessor to give the mother, the baby, the grandmother and all the women present a prayer and name the newborn baby. After the prayer, the king enters the soapbox to look at the newborn, and before the prayer, no one enters or leaves the soapbox. The newborn is given the name of the saint whose memory will be celebrated on the eighth day from the birth of the baby.

The king sends to the patriarch with the news that God has given him a prince; the patriarch immediately goes to the cathedral, the tsar also comes here, and a prayer service is performed. They also send prayers to all churches and monasteries, distribute alms to the poor and needy. Then the tsar goes to the monasteries, feeds the blacks and gives alms; likewise, large alms are sent to prisons and almshouses and the guilty are released from prisons, except for great criminals.

folk wedding

The traditional Russian wedding ceremony has very deep roots. Over the centuries, it has changed under the influence of various factors, but some of its elements exist to this day. The main events of the folk wedding ceremony were:

Matchmaking;

Smotriny;

Engagement;

Wedding;

Wedding feast.

The main characters, of course, were the bride and groom, who in the old days were called prince and princess, despite the fact that they could be very poor. Wedding ceremonies are very beautiful, symbolic, in addition, they are public, that is, they are performed with a gathering of people - close and distant relatives, who often, as in the old days, rarely saw each other. Many tend to celebrate the day of marriage in a special way, so that there is something to remember, in addition to a wedding dress, gifts, a banquet. The persistence of folk wedding traditions is amazing. Almost every family, especially in the countryside, has its own expert who knows how to organize and hold a wedding celebration.

A folk wedding is a solemn theatrical performance, a folk drama with its own canons, a detailed plot, a set of obligatory characters (except for the bride and groom, these are matchmakers, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc.). All of them knew very well at what moment what to say, whom to praise, and whom to ridicule. It is believed that the common expression "to play a wedding" came from the Slavic custom of marrying during spring round dance games. The guy chose a girl for himself and, if she agreed, took her to his house. Such a marriage was called stealing, withdrawal, self-propelled guns.

A little earlier there was a story about the main, main parts of the wedding ceremony, in general, the wedding ceremony consisted of the following parts:

The preparatory part, which included courtship, inspection of the groom's house, hand-shaking, pilgrimage, bachelorette and bachelor parties, ritual washing of the bride and groom;

Actually weddings: the collection of the wedding train, the arrival of the groom for the bride, the wedding, the meeting of the young in the house of the groom's parents, the bringing of the dowry, the wedding feast;

Post-wedding part: rites of the wedding night, otvodina - visits of the young to their closest relatives.

Each part consisted of various ritual actions that had many variants in different areas. Some of them have completely disappeared, for example, beating the dawn - the cry of the bride; others have survived to this day, for example, a bachelorette party, a bachelor party, and a bride price.

Over time, a certain stereotype of a wedding has developed, common to Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. The common time was for weddings. They never played weddings during fasts, on the days of the twelfth Orthodox holidays. Most weddings were played and continue to be played now in the fall, after the harvest. Then Philip's fast comes and you have to wait until Christmas time is over. After Epiphany and until Shrovetide week, lovers can again unite their destinies. The happiest was considered a wedding played on Krasnaya Gorka, after Easter, during St. Thomas's week. May was considered an unlucky month for marriage. “In May, kind people do not marry,” says the proverb.

It was also common that many wedding ceremonies were of a legal nature, for example, if during the matchmaking the father of the bride drank the wine offered by the groom's relatives, this was regarded as consent, and at that moment a song determined by the rite was sung, which was also a legal fact. Both parties had rights and obligations fixed and consecrated by tradition: ransom, dowry, masonry, etc. The matchmaking was sealed with a handshake and a pledge in the form of some valuable gift, which was not returned in case of violation of the marriage contract.

In addition, in all wedding ceremonies a magical basis was strong. Initially, the transition of a girl from the father's clan to the husband's clan entailed, according to the ancestors, the transition under the protection of male spirits and therefore was accompanied by various magical actions: special protective, protective rites that promote childbearing, well-being and health of the young. When performing all the actions related to the connection of two young people "into a single organism", it was necessary to observe many different customs. For example, during courtship, the matchmaker, entering the house, had to move his right foot over the threshold and tap his heel on the floor, “so that the bride does not back away,” then he should stand under the mother - a beam that supports the ceiling in the hut, starting mediation between the houses of the bride and groom . The expression "stand under the mother" over time acquired the meaning of "come to woo."

After the “hand-beating”, the bride was covered with a scarf from the evil eye and the tow on her spinning wheel was burned. From that moment on, the girl was called conspired, she had to appear in public as rarely as possible, wear a black scarf on her head, and the ribbon in her braid should have been loose.

The number of carriages of the wedding train was to be odd, but not less than three; besides, the wedding train had to go in a roundabout way in order to confuse the evil forces. At the wedding table, the bride was put on her knees by a boy so that sons would be born.

Over time, the wedding ceremony began to be perceived as an aesthetic action, a kind of game. Few of the grooms even today know that by carrying the bride into the house over the threshold in his arms, he deceives the brownie, makes him accept the girl as a newborn family member who did not enter the house, but ended up there by himself. Now this rite is widespread everywhere, but it has received a completely different semantic coloring: the husband thus demonstrates his strength and love for his young wife. Some rituals have been preserved because of the poetic form, others because of tradition, because our grandfathers did.

There are two main types of weddings: drama and celebration. The first is typical primarily for the Russian north. It differs in that from the day of the agreement and until the very wedding, the bride lamented, lamented her mother, her friends. In the south of Russia, among the Cossacks, some groups of Belarusians, Ukrainians, the wedding was a fun event. Only if the bride was an orphan, she lamented at the grave of her parents and sang sad songs.

The wedding harmoniously entered the structure of the wedding everywhere, dividing the wedding celebration into two parts: in the bride's house (before) and in the groom's house (after). However, in the south of Russia, in some places, the wedding was sometimes held in advance, before the wedding, and the final connection of the young people took place only after the wedding feast. Despite the many options, the main components of a wedding are distinguished, that is, the entire cycle of rituals, starting with matchmaking and ending with allotments.

First, there was an unspoken matchmaking: from the side of the groom, specially trained people came to the bride's house to agree on the possibility of intermarriage. For example, in Altai it was a matchmaker, in other places it was the groom's parents or the man's relatives. Real matchmakers had their own secrets. So, it was believed that before the girl was asked if she agreed, she must be patted on the left shoulder - then she would not be able to refuse.

As a rule, the matchmaking was followed by the bride's bride's bridegroom's relatives. The groom himself did not always manage to see the bride before the final agreement, and sometimes even before the wedding itself. Usually this was allowed if the groom showed particular perseverance, and the bride's parents were afraid to miss out on a profitable game.

The bride's relatives, in turn, inspected the groom's household. This custom acquired particular importance if the matchmakers came from other places. Satisfied with the results of the inspection of the household, the bride's parents appointed the day of public courtship, or rubbing. “Collusion”, “zaruchiny”, “vaults”, “proclamation” - this was the name of this rite. Over time, this rite absorbed some other rites. Relatives and bridesmaids were invited to handshake. As a rule, the parents, more often the fathers, the betrothed, sometimes the future spouses themselves “beat on the hands”, thereby strengthening their consent to marriage.

In collusion, they decided on the organization of the wedding, discussed the size of the dowry. Giving a dowry to the bride has always been an indispensable condition for a Russian wedding. The dowry included: bedding, dresses, household utensils, jewelry, people, money, real estate, livestock. If the bride was from a poor family and could not bring a dowry to the house, then the groom himself could “make a dowry”, for example, by transferring a certain amount of money to the bride’s parents, but this happened quite rarely. During the conspiracy, wedding ranks were also distributed. The bride and groom were likened to the prince and princess, the wedding itself was like a princely feast, and therefore many wedding ranks were called like a “court staff”: close relatives and honored guests were big boyars, distant relatives and guests were smaller.

A friend was definitely chosen - often it was not just a merry fellow, a joker, but a person who knows how to protect the wedding from damage. The godmothers of the bride and groom usually acted as matchmakers. Tysyatsky - governor, head of the wedding train - godfather or uncle of the groom. The friend-best man always had an assistant - a half-friend. The bride was supposed to have a bridesmaid, the groom - a bridegroom. The bridegroom and the sister-in-law had to hold the crowns over the young during the wedding. Often, a bed keeper or bed keeper was chosen from the bride’s relatives for the wedding, whose task was to protect the bed from damage on the way from the bride’s parental home to the groom’s house and during the wedding feast in the groom’s house. The bed-maker sold the bed, sometimes stuffing the price sometimes higher than the bride "cost" in scolding.

"Small servants" were also chosen - loafers, candle-makers, movniki, musicians were invited. Sometimes a captive, a vytnitsa, was called to the wedding, who howled and lamented, introducing the bride and those around her into that special state when everyone began to cry. It happened that a sorcerer was also invited to the wedding, so that he, bypassed by attention, would not turn the wedding train into wolves. A harmful sorcerer could even disrupt the course of the wedding ceremony, and could demand, for example, that the groom be locked in a dark bath. The whim of the sorcerer had to be fulfilled. In terms of seniority, the ranks on the part of the groom were superior to the ranks on the part of the bride.

If the wedding day was known for sure, girls began to gather in the bride's house, who were now called maidens. They helped decorate the dowry, sewed balloons, and in the evenings, a company of young people led by the groom came to the bride and her friends for “visits”. Every day the groom gave his betrothed small gifts. Young people gathered at pre-wedding parties: they sang, drank tea, played.

For unmarried girls, their favorite entertainment and at the same time ways to attract love, in addition to many other customs and rituals associated with the multiplication and preservation of love, were mermaid games that began in the initial summer period. Many rituals were held on the feast of Ivan Kupala and the Feast of the Intercession. They are celebrated even today.

The Rusal holiday is associated with water. During it, all unmarried girls line up around the well in a round dance. Then they dance faster and faster in a clockwise direction. Men and couples at this time begin to shout over each other, saying a spell: “To make the water clean, we invite mermaids. So that there is a harvest, heaven, rain, let us! On dry days, it was necessary to invite and appease beautiful maidens with green hair, a beautiful body and a fish tail instead of legs. It is said that drowned girls become mermaids. They feel good in the water, but they yearn for earthly life and therefore willingly help people during a drought.

Mermaids are friendly and playful. So, having met a lonely man, they can tickle him to the point that he can burst with laughter. To pay off the mermaids, he must give them a difficult riddle or ask a difficult question. While the mermaids are thinking, the man runs away from this place, and the mermaids cannot catch up with him, because instead of legs they have fish tails.

Having finished leading a round dance around the well, water is taken out of it and it is poured everywhere. It is believed that if a drop of water from a mermaid falls on a beggar, he will become prosperous within a year. If a patient is poured with such water, he will recover and become younger.

After the ritual dousing with water, all the girls and boys ordered the craftsman to carve the image of a mermaid from wood and kept it at home for a week so that happiness would come to the house. At the end of the week, the image of a mermaid with requests for help in a happy marriage was thrown into a ritual fire. On the last evening of the Mermaid week, just on the night before Ivan Kupala, a straw horse was made. If there was a master among the participants in the festival, he was entrusted with the honorable right to make a wooden horse, on which the mermaids would be sent back to their possessions. The horse was decorated with colorful ribbons and many iron and clay bells. A stuffed mermaid was made of straw and solemnly seated on a horse. Then, with noise and roar, they carried the horse and the mermaid from the place of kindling the "live fire" and threw it into the fire. It was believed that only "living fire" was able to return amazing girls back to their home.

"Live fire" was mined from birch logs. To do this, it was necessary to take two logs and two flint stones. Logs or pieces of wood were laid down on the site of the alleged ritual fire and sparks were knocked out with flints until a “living fire” flared up. If today such a fire is kindled with matches, it will not have the same purifying power as knocked out of flint, even if it is lit on the indicated days.

They mined "living fire" three times a year: on the day of the winter solstice; on the day of Maslenitsa; on the night and day of Ivan Kupala. Fire was brought home with splinters or torches, then with prayers they went around the whole house, all the rooms three times (clockwise). "Live fire" is a symbol of well-being and abundance. It has healing properties: if it is carried three times over the sores, they soon heal. You can’t spit in the “live fire”, you can’t throw waste at it, otherwise it can “revenge”, because it lives its own life and came to earth to help, and therefore requires a respectful attitude towards itself. It should be extinguished with clean water, and if a candle or a torch with a living birch fire burns in the house, it should be extinguished with wet fingers.

Girls and boys threw wooden images of mermaids into the "living fire" of the ritual fire, which they kept at home for a week. After the effigies were burned, the fire was filled with water from the ritual well.

There is a belief that twice a year from one in the morning until five in the morning the heavens open, and all the requests of people are fulfilled. This happens once a year on the night before Ivan Kupala, and the second - on Christmas Eve (from January 6 to 7).

One of the main Slavic holidays is the amazing feast of Ivan Kupala, which is celebrated on July 7th. Traditionally, it coincides with the summer solstice. It was on this day that the Christian holiday of John the Baptist was timed in ancient Russia. However, after the reform of the calendar, the feast of John the Baptist moved 13 days later.

In order to get on with life, on the holiday of Ivana Kupala, people sought to fulfill all the rites as accurately as possible. The youth chose a picturesque place, lit fires and jumped over them. These jumps have a magical effect. It is believed that by jumping over the fire, a person burns everything bad that is in him, illness, evil eye, damage, etc. To attract love to Ivan Kupala, a special ritual was performed. The boy and girl joined hands and jumped in pairs over the fire. Well, if you are already an established couple. If not, then you need to choose a guy or girl prettier. It doesn't matter if it's not your darling. The main thing is to show the Universe that you are not alone and do not intend to remain alone all your life. If the jump is successful, and you almost simultaneously touched the ground and did not stumble, this predicts future happiness. If someone touches the ground earlier, an early marriage awaits him, if later, then marriage will be late. And if you stumble, fall, hurt yourself - this means an unhappy family life. The one who jumps the highest over the fire will become richer this year.

On the feast of Ivan Kupala, mothers in other ritual bonfires burned the clothes of sick children separately from the “living fire”, in order to destroy all diseases with it. If a person suffered and yearned for unrequited love, he had to burn all objects reminiscent of misfortune in that annihilating fire.

At the dawn of Ivan Kupala, dew drops were collected. This dew is not simple. She rejuvenates. If you sprinkle the corners of the dwelling with it, cockroaches will no longer be found in it.

In some places in Russia, on the day of Ivan Kupala, it is forbidden to swim in rivers, lakes, seas, since the “birthday boy” Vodyanoy will drown anyone who disturbs him on the day of the feast. But the day of Ivan Kupala is a holiday of purity, so swimming in the reservoirs was successfully replaced by a bath. In addition, people firmly believed that a magical fern flower blooms at midnight at Kupala and went to look for it, because it was believed that there was always a treasure in the place of a flowering fern.

Birch has always been considered the patroness and assistant of brides, which, for its white trunk, was also called a bride. Many rituals were associated with the birch. So, it was believed that if a girl or an unmarried woman combs her hair under a birch, she will definitely attract male love. And if a girl weaves together the branches of two birches growing side by side, then with her husband they will live in joy and harmony all their lives. If an unmarried woman or a single man drank water from a birch tub, then they soon found mutual love that never withered.

When small leaves appeared on a young birch, the girl had to ask her for a twig. It is to ask, because when a branch is broken, the tree hurts. Then the branch should be put under the pillow at night. That night, the girl will definitely dream of her betrothed. Seeing him in a dream, the next day you should perform another ritual: bake a cake or gingerbread. The girl scattered the crumbs of the pie at the threshold and said: “My dear, betrothed, come to dinner with me!” Crumbs should be removed the next day.

If in the spring a girl weaves a braid from young flexible birch branches, then brings it into the house and secretly puts it under the threshold, then within a year her betrothed will appear on the threshold. In order for him to stay with the girl, it was necessary to invite him to the house. After the betrothed crossed the cherished birch braid, it was secretly removed, and after the young men left, they went out into the street, away from the house and burned it.

One of the favorite holidays for the Slavs since the Baptism of Russia was the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. In the days of this celebration, weddings were celebrated. It was commemorated by the Russian Orthodox Church in memory of the miracle in the Blachernae Church in Constantinople - the then capital of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire in? century.

A huge enemy army approached Constantinople. During the all-night prayer in the Blachernae Church, people prayed to the Lord to protect them from their enemies. Blessed Andrew, a Slav, also prayed there together with his disciple Epiphanius. During the prayer, Saint Andrew raised his eyes to him and saw the Most Pure Virgin walking through the air towards the temple, surrounded by angels and saints. The Most Holy Theotokos, kneeling down, prayed for a long time together with people and saints, and then took off the veil (veil or omophorion, as it is also called) from her head and spread it over those who prayed in the temple. It was a sign that she would grant the world her protection over the enemy, visible and invisible. The help of the Mother of God was obvious - the enemies left the city themselves without a fight and bloodshed. In memory of this event, on the day of the sign on October 14, the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos was established.

The cover is the patron saint of weddings. If the first snow falls on Pokrov, there will be many weddings and all marriages concluded during this period will be the happiest, since the newlyweds are under the protection of the Most Holy Theotokos herself. On this day, any unmarried girl who wants to find a family should go to church for a festive service and light three candles in front of the icon of the Intercession Mother of God with a request to grant a happy marriage. It was believed that the girl who was the first to put candles at the holy icon of the Protection of the Mother of God on a holiday would be the first of those present to get married.

At home and in church, the girls prayed: “The cover is a holiday, cover the ground with a snowball, and cover my little head with a wedding crown.”

The wedding was celebrated according to all the rules. The last day or evening or week before the wedding was called a bachelorette party. In the morning, the bride began to lament. Since the evening, girls have been making “maiden beauty” - a straw or linen braid decorated with flowers and ribbons for sale to the groom. They untwisted the bride's braid, combed her hair, and in the evening they took her to the bathhouse "to wash off the virgin's will." Girlfriends brought water for washing from different wells. When washing, the bride had to use a broom brought from the groom's house, or a soap donated by him, and the groom was brought an embroidered towel and a broom from the bride for washing. After the bath, the bride gave her ribbons to her sisters and close friends, in memory of her girlhood.

Making and decorating a wedding loaf was the most important ritual. Usually they baked it on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, on the eve of the wedding. Women-neighbors and relatives of the bride were engaged in baking. Before removing the loaf from the oven, they knocked on it with a fork. In the morning, the loaf was dressed up at the same time as the bride was dressing.

The morning of the wedding day began again with the bride's reckoning. In fact, the bachelorette party continued - farewell to beauty, to friends, to the parental home. While the bride was being dressed up, rituals were going on in the groom's house: preparation for scolding.

The wedding wagon had been decorated since the evening; in the morning, the mother combed her son's curls - after all, he also said goodbye to his bachelor life. To protect the groom from the evil eye, the godmother sometimes put him on a sauerkraut, cut a bunch of hair crosswise from his head and singed the places of the cuts. They dressed the groom, like the bride, in everything new - a shirt embroidered by the bride, a belt woven by her, etc.

During the fight in the old days, fisticuffs were organized between the families of the bride and groom, during which the bride's relatives, having put up symbolic resistance to the groom's relatives, surrendered. In commemoration of the reconciliation of the parties, bread was exchanged between the matchmakers of the bride and groom.

In many traditions, the bride's matchmaker would sweep the road in front of the house before the wedding train arrived. An obligatory ceremony after the meeting of the travelers was the ransom of the braid and a place next to the bride. He paid, as a rule, a friend, not necessarily with money, more often with sweets, for girls - by ribbon. The scythe was sold by the younger brother, for Belarusians - the sister of the bride. Before leaving for the crown, the girl's parents blessed the young with an icon and bread. The father put her right hand into the hand of the groom with the words: “Eat, feed, shoe, dress, send to work and don’t give offense!” The bride, leaving the house, lamented, even if she liked the marriage. “You will cry at the pillar if you don’t cry at the table,” the proverb says.

They went to the crown with songs and returned with songs. It was believed that on the way the wedding could easily be spoiled by an unkind person, so the friend observed all precautions: he read prayers and conspiracies; removed stones from the road, on which witchcraft could be cast, chose the road. Fellow villagers often stopped the wedding train, blocking the road and putting out bread and salt. This was considered a good sign, for which the travelers treated them to wine. Loud sounds scare away evil spirits, so guys with guns came out towards the wedding train and shot into the air. They also got food.

At his home, the groom and his retinue were met by his mother, dressed in an inside-out sheepskin coat; she sprinkled her son and daughter-in-law with oats, millet, at the entrance to the house they set up “turnkeys” through which the newlyweds were supposed to pass, or lit fires - all this was supposed to protect the young couple and promised wealth. The groom's father also came out, together with his mother they blessed the young, escorted them to the wedding tables, seated them at the benches covered with fur coats. Druzhka christened the path of the young with a whip, and the matchmaker swept the road with a broom. The bride brought a black hen with her and released it when she approached the house. It was an offering to the brownie.

At the feast, the newlyweds had to eat nothing, the bride gave gifts to new relatives, and the guests brought gifts to the newlyweds. They sang mostly laudatory and reproachful songs. They called the bride and groom, relatives. For magnificence, it was supposed to give gifts to those who sing, to treat them. If they were delayed with a treat, the singers immediately turned on the stain to the one who was only painted with all the colors.

When the time came, at a strictly defined moment of the feast (everywhere in different ways), the young one was “wrapped”, “twisted”, “bandaged”, that is, the bride’s hairstyle and girl’s headdress were changed to women’s. This ceremony was usually performed by matchmakers. They covered the bride with a canopy from the eyes of the guests, divided her hair in two, put it on her head in the form of braids, plaits, or “horns”, and covered her with a female headdress, different for all provinces. Sometimes, even in neighboring villages, women's dresses had differences.

At the end of the feast, the young were usually escorted to rest in a bathhouse, a cage, a hayloft, or even a barn, where the marriage bed and supper were prepared. Such an order was introduced so that the young would not spend the first night "under the ground", that is, as in a grave, since the ceiling of most living quarters had earthen filling. The wife was obliged to take off her husband's boots, demonstrating her humility, and give him a whip. The husband had to put in advance the money that went to the young wife in boots as a sign that the husband would adequately support her, and having taken the whip, he lightly hit his wife three times so that he would never beat him again in family life.

The next morning, and sometimes in the same evening, there was an "opening" of the young. Tysyatsky opened a closet or a bathhouse (the keys to the bedroom of the young were kept by him), and the matchmakers went for a sheet or a young woman's shirt. These objects were given great magical power, through them the bride could forever be made barren, and the matchmakers took their duties very seriously. If the bride is "honest" - pots were beaten against the bedroom door, dressed up in a team and drove in the morning for the bride's parents (after the crown at the feast, the groom did not have them), they brought them and began to treat and magnify. Otherwise, instead of flowers, horses were “decorated” with old brooms and torn rags. In this case, the bride's parents were called so that they often hid in advance. "For a treat" they were served a glass without a bottom.

The second day of the wedding was called cake tables. If the young woman proved her innocence, all the guests dressed up in red clothes, tied red scarves on poles and marched through the village with such banners. Often, those who came for a walk on the second day were met with a comic “bathhouse”. On this day, the newlyweds were faced with many trials: to separate rubbish from money, to chop firewood on the floor in the house, to meet guests with pies and pancakes, and to accept gifts. The wedding loaf, which was baked in the bride's house before the wedding, decorated with dough cones or bird figurines, was finally cut and treated to the guests. Sometimes this was done at the end of the wedding feast, that is, the previous day.

On the second or third day of the wedding, it was customary to go to the mother-in-law for pancakes. The friends of the young husband gathered in his house, dressed up in whatever they could, took a bucket of vzvartsa and went to the house of the parents of the young wife. The mother-in-law met and treated the guests. When the treat came to an end, the mother-in-law smeared her son-in-law's head with oil from the pot, and the son-in-law took the pot from her hands and said: “Dad and mother, thank you for your daughter. What it was like in your font, so it is in bed, ”and he broke the pot on the floor. On this "mother-in-law pancakes" ended.

Often the celebration continued on the third day, and then - already in the homes of relatives. It was called "retractions". Young people went to everyone who invited them to drive “bread and salt” with all their relatives. After the wedding, a difficult life began for the young family. The young woman had to get used to strangers, to obedience, and prepared for motherhood. But at Maslenka and after Easter, the newlyweds were again remembered. The youth rolled them down the hill, always trying to knock them over into the snow; demanded a ransom from the wife for her husband buried in the snow (most often - a kiss). After Easter, young young people were “called out”, the ceremony was called “vyuniny”. They sang special vine songs, for which the singers had to be rewarded again. Only after the hail, in which only married people participated, did the mother-in-law begin to load the daughter-in-law with hard work.

wedding feast

In Russia, weddings were played for at least three days, and sometimes up to a week. And, of course, the most important event of the wedding celebrations was a feast. The festive table was already prepared from the time of courtship, because they did not go to the courtship empty-handed, the groom and his relatives came to the bride's house with gifts and treats: beer, wine and fish pie. By tradition, the father of the bride had to refuse and not give consent to the wedding, and the matchmakers and relatives of the bride had to persuade him and remind him of the word given in collusion. Then they usually set the table, put dishes for wine for everyone except the bride. The bride treated the guests with bread and salt, lit a candle under the icon, and all the guests prayed before starting the festive dinner, which, as usual, consisted of a fish pie (rybnik), jellies, cabbage soup and two or three roasts. The bride carried the guests with vodka, brought by the matchmakers “for needs”, and distributed inexpensive handmade gifts to everyone.

For the preparation of rybnik, fresh, slightly salted fish with the addition of butter was wrapped in a cake made from sour (yeast) dough, kneaded from rye or wheat flour.

Kurnik was prepared in the same way, only the dough was yeast-free (fresh). Russians did not bake kurniki with minced rice, as one can read in modern cookbooks, only because rice was practically unknown in Russia and very expensive. The stuffing for the chicken coop also depended on the well-being of the parents of young people who got married. The more prosperous put more meat into it, and the poor sometimes baked kurnik only with millet or wheat porridge, mushrooms or turnips. There was such a wedding custom: a kurnik was broken over the head of the young at the wedding dinner, and the more millet or wheat grains spilled out of it, the more money the young family should have in the future.

Almost all stages of the wedding ceremony were necessarily accompanied by a feast or gifting with something edible. For example, on the eve of the wedding, a bachelor party was held in the groom's house. These were purely male gatherings, which were not called by the groom himself, but by his brother, father or uncle, who on this occasion was called the invited one. The invited one came to the house of the invited person and brought him a kalach and a piece of beef as a gift, but most often a raw mutton shoulder.

When the future spouses went down the aisle, they brought with them to church a vessel with bread wine, from which the priest gave the bride and groom three times to drink. For the third time, the groom threw the cup of wine on the floor and trampled on it with his feet. Seeing off the newlyweds to church and meeting the newlyweds after the wedding, they were sprinkled with grain.

After the wedding, the young and the guests were waiting for a wedding dinner, namely a dinner, and not a feast with a huge amount of vodka, lasting several days, as is customary in our time. The wedding table was covered with an elegant tablecloth, embroidered specifically for such celebrations. One plate was placed in front of the bride and groom, and two spoons and a whole rye bread sprinkled with salt were placed crosswise on it. The young themselves did not touch any food or drinks throughout the entire wedding dinner. In the middle of the table lay a loaf or kurnik, covered crosswise with two embroidered towels, and sometimes a spruce branch was stuck in the middle of the cake. Druzhka (in the modern concept - toastmaster) at the end of dinner removed towels from the loaf, tied one over his shoulder, gave the other to his assistant, and then cut the loaf into pieces and distributed the pieces to the guests. Each guest had to give a small coin to the bride for a piece of loaf, and those guests who had not yet presented the young, to bring their gift. In some places, it was customary to do this procedure on the second day of the wedding, and the young people themselves cut the wedding loaf. This custom has survived to this day in a slightly modified form. Instead of a loaf, dishes with vodka are placed on the table, and each giver is given a full glass. Our ancestors hardly drank vodka. Preference was given to beer or mash, and wines were also popular, the recipe for which was brought from Greece.

The wedding dinner, according to tradition, began with soup. Often it was noodles with pork and chicken or borscht, and dinner would certainly end with a hot meal. In some Russian provinces there was such a rite. Several types of roasts were served; the dish that was brought last, the friend wrapped in a towel and carried it off the table. After that, this dish was served to young people, who in the evening after a common holiday they gathered dinner separately, in a secluded place, and sometimes in a closet, where they spent their wedding night.

As already mentioned, the second day of the wedding was called the cake table. The young woman regaled the guests with pies that she cooked herself, demonstrating her culinary art. She also showed her hospitality to her new relatives by laying a whole table consisting of different dishes, and her young husband helped her in this. In the morning he went for firewood and water, and the young wife at that time tidied up the house. For dinner, guests arrived - relatives, friends, neighbors. Everyone was invited to the table, while the young did not sit down, as they were obliged to serve food to the guests, and the young - to treat them to various kinds of drinks. The dishes were prepared almost the same as the day before: jelly, cabbage soup, one or two roasts, cheese, loaves and pies; from drinks - braga, beer, sometimes wine. Raising the first cup, the guests congratulated the young man on a young, kind hostess, a pastry maker, and his father and mother with their daughter-in-law - a true replacement.

On the third day, the young went to their mother-in-law for pancakes, and there the mother of the young wife showed her skill and hospitality. The mother-in-law put on the table a pot of butter, pancakes, a roasted pig, and scrambled eggs, in the middle of which she put a ruble for happiness.

Visits to other relatives - otvodina - were also accompanied by small feasts and feasts.

The recipes below will help you partially recreate the traditions of the Russian wedding table.

Recipes for a traditional Russian wedding table

Rybnik

Products

For the dough (for a 1 kg pie): 400 g wheat flour, 2 teaspoons sugar, 40 g butter, 1 egg, 2/3 cup water or milk, 15–20 g yeast, 0.5 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

For the filling: 600–700 g of fish fillet (perch, cod, navaga), salt, pepper to taste, herbs.

For greasing the pie: 1 tablespoon of fat, 0.5 eggs.

The dough is prepared in the sourdough method. The yeast is diluted in a small amount of water or milk, the rest of the liquid and half of the flour prescribed according to the recipe are added, the liquid “talker” is kneaded and left to approach it for 1.5–2 hours. Then all other components are added, at the end of the kneading - flour and after all - vegetable oil. Again leave the dough in a warm place for fermentation. When the dough has risen to its maximum height, it is punched down and allowed to rise again. After that, the dough is laid out on a board, divided into two parts, two layers are rolled out. One of them is placed on a greased baking sheet, a large piece of fish fillet is placed on it, sprinkled with pepper, salt, herbs (dill, tarragon), covered with a second layer of dough on top, pinch the edges, grease the surface of the pie with an egg, let it stand and bake.

To improve the taste, the fish can first be sprinkled with lemon juice and kept in the cold for an hour, and when laying the filling in the pie, put a few pieces of butter on the fish fillet.

Kurnik

Products

For unleavened pastry: 350 g of wheat flour, 90 g of butter, 1 egg, 15 g of sugar, 30 g of sour cream, 75 ml of water or milk, a pinch of salt and soda.

For pancakes: 40 g wheat flour, 0.5 eggs, 100 ml milk, salt, sugar, fat for frying.

For minced rice: 60 g rice, 1 egg, 20 g butter, greens.

For minced chicken: 450 chicken pulp, 20 g butter, 5 g wheat flour.

For minced mushrooms: 150 g fresh or 50 g dried mushrooms, 10 g butter.

To lubricate the chicken coop - 0.5 eggs.

A round cake with a diameter of about 25 and a thickness of about 0.5 cm is rolled out of unleavened pastry. A baked pancake is placed on it, a layer of rice filling is placed on it, covered with a pancake, a layer of chicken pulp is placed, again a pancake, a layer of fried fresh porcini mushrooms (or boiled and chopped dried), cover with a pancake. Another layer of rice filling is laid on top, all minced meat laid in a slide is covered with pancakes on the outside.

Then they roll out the second cake of unleavened pastry with a diameter of 35-40 cm, make four radial cuts (if the cake is large, there may be more cuts) and cover it with a hill of minced meat and pancakes. The edges of the upper and lower cakes are pinched around the base of the herringbone. On the surface of the kurnik, the edges are pinched along the lines of radial cuts. Kurnik is smeared with an egg, decorations are placed on it (stylized figures of people, animals, flowers, etc.), several punctures are made and baked at a temperature of 200–210 degrees.

To prepare minced rice, boil friable rice porridge, add boiled chopped eggs, parsley, oil and mix. If the minced meat is too dry, you can add a little chicken broth to it.

To prepare minced chicken, the chicken is boiled, the flesh is separated from the bones, and cut into pieces. The flour is heated with butter, diluted with broth, boiled and the chicken is poured with the resulting sauce.

To prepare minced mushrooms, fresh porcini mushrooms are fried in oil and seasoned with the same sauce as chicken. If the mushrooms are dried, then they are boiled, chopped, fried and seasoned with sauce prepared on mushroom broth.

pancake loaf

Products

For the dough: 3 cups of milk, 2 cups of wheat flour, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 100 g of butter; 0.5 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar.

For minced meat: 0.5 kg of boiled beef, 0.5 tablespoons of butter, 0.5 onions, salt, pepper, 2 hard-boiled eggs.

For minced curd: 200 g of fat cottage cheese, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of butter.

For minced semolina: 1 tablespoon butter, 1 cup milk, 0.5 cup semolina, 1 egg, frying oil.

Dough for pancakes: grind egg yolks with salt and sugar, add vegetable oil and dilute the resulting mass with milk. Pour the flour in small portions, mixing thoroughly each time. When all the flour has been used, carefully fold the whipped egg whites into the dough and start baking pancakes.

Ready pancakes are put in a pan, greased with oil, and shifted with different minced meats until the entire pan is filled. Put the remaining butter on the top pancake and pour over the sour cream. Put the pan in the oven and heat the loaf for about half an hour over low heat. Then remove the pan from the oven, put the loaf on a dish and serve warm.

To prepare minced meat, pass the boiled meat through a meat grinder, add finely chopped onion, salt, pepper, finely chopped eggs and butter.

To prepare the curd filling, grind the cottage cheese with a raw egg, add sour cream, butter and rub again thoroughly.

To prepare the filling from semolina, you need to boil milk, add butter to it, add semolina, previously grated with a raw egg and fried in a frying pan with butter, salt and cook until tender. The porridge prepared in this way is crumbly and tasty. Semolina filling for pancakes was one of the most common in Russian cuisine.

How to make wedding soup

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200 g minced meat, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs or breadcrumbs, 0.5 teaspoon dried basil, 0.5 onion, 6 cups chicken broth, 2 cups finely chopped spinach (can be frozen), 0.5 cup small pasta, a third of a cup of finely chopped carrots; some grated cheese.

Mix the minced meat, egg, bread crumbs, grated cheese and finely chopped onion in a bowl. Form balls with a diameter of 2 cm from the minced meat. Bring chicken broth to a boil, add spinach, pasta, carrots and meat balls, basil to it. Bring back to a boil and simmer for ten minutes until the pasta is done. Do not overcook or the pasta will overcook. Mix the soup well so that the pasta does not stick together. Pour the soup into bowls and sprinkle with grated cheese on top. How to cook a wedding roast. Hunting meat

Products

2 kg beef tenderloin, 60 g butter, 4 diced bacon slices; 1 glass of dry red wine and wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons of sugar or honey 4 tablespoons of raisins, 2 tablespoons of flour, 10 cloves; 1 bunch herbs, tied with string (tarragon, dill and leek optional; bunch dipped in soup or marinade for 2-3 minutes, then removed), 2 bay leaves, 4 crushed juniper berries (juniper berries give the meat a special smoked taste; they can not be added, but then a lot will be lost in taste), 6 crushed peppercorns; 3 crushed garlic cloves, 1 sliced ​​onion, salt to taste.

Put cloves, herbs, bay leaf, juniper berries, pepper, garlic, onion in a saucepan. Salt, add wine vinegar and bring to a boil. Let cool. Place the tenderloin in a large bowl and pour over the prepared marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 2 days, turning the meat from time to time. Dry the meat, save the marinade. Melt half the butter in a pan and lightly brown the bacon and meat. Put the meat and bacon in a tall tray, pre-moistened with water.

Boil the marinade until its volume is halved. Cool, strain and pour over the meat. Add wine, sugar and raisins. Cover the tray and place in a cold oven.

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees and simmer for 2.5 hours. Rub the remaining butter with flour into a homogeneous mass and heat, whisking in a small saucepan for 2-3 minutes. Cut the finished meat into pieces and grease with the resulting sauce.

How to cook stuffed pike

Products

For a carcass of fish weighing 1 kg (weight without bones 400 g): 80 g of wheat bread, 90 ml of water or milk, 100 g of onions, 35 g of vegetable oil, 1 egg, 2 cloves of garlic, herbs, spices, salt to taste; 100-200 g horseradish sauce.

Clean the fish, rinse, make an annular incision of the skin near the head, remove the skin from the carcass with a “stocking”, making incisions if necessary so that the dorsal fin is separated along with the skin. Cut the vertebral bone at the tail so that the tail remains inside the everted skin. Gut the carcass, rinse, cut off the head, remove the eyes and gills. Separate the pulp from the bones and make a filling out of it.

To prepare the filling, fish pulp, onion lightly fried in oil, chopped garlic, white bread soaked in milk, pass 2-3 times through a meat grinder, add a raw egg, salt, pepper. As a rule, the pulp of one fish is not enough for stuffing, then you need to add the pulp from another fish, not necessarily from pike.

Stuff the skin removed from the fish with the prepared stuffing, put the head on, wrap in gauze and tie in several places with thin twine. Put the carcass in an oblong bowl, add water or broth, add bay leaf, pepper, salt, chopped carrots, onions and simmer, cover with a lid.

Cool the finished fish, carefully unfold and cut across with a very sharp knife. Lay out the bottom of the oval dish with slices of white bread, put pieces of fish on them in the form of a whole carcass.

Place a side dish of boiled potatoes, pickles, tomatoes, etc. around the fish.

Decorate the fish with herbs, lemon slices. Horseradish sauce with vinegar served separately.

How to cook roasted pig with buckwheat porridge

Products

For 1 kg of raw pig: 120 g of fat, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, 1.2 kg of buckwheat porridge, 120 g of onions, 2 eggs, 100 g of brains.

Cut the carcass of the pig lengthwise. From the inside, slightly incise the spine, cut the pelvic bones, carefully clean the internal cavity, rinse and dry the carcass. Then it needs to be flattened, rubbed with salt from the inside, greased with sour cream on top and fried in an oven, periodically greasing.

In order not to burn the ears, they are coated with dough before frying, and after 20–30 minutes of frying, the dough is removed and the piglet continues to bake.

Cut the finished pig lengthwise and then across into pieces, put on a dish with buckwheat porridge and pour over the meat juice. Mix buckwheat porridge for garnish with fried onions, chopped eggs, pieces of boiled brain and lightly fry.

How to make spiced honey

Products

1 kg honey, 2.5 kg water, 10 g spices, 100 g yeast

Honey (preferably fresh) is boiled, the foam is removed, pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and water are added. Then boil again and cool. After cooling, yeast is added, poured into large bottles and placed in a warm place for 12 hours. Then the bottles are closed and left in the cold to ripen for 2-3 weeks. Ready honey is bottled and corked.

Wedding ritual songs

As in the old days, so now a wedding is unthinkable without songs. Previously, all stages of the wedding ceremony were accompanied by songs; they were an integral part of the ceremony as a whole, and not only decorated the celebration, but also performed magical and legal functions.

A wedding ceremony, during which traditional songs would not be sung, could not be considered valid, just as it was not considered “legitimate” even without a wedding feast. Surprisingly beautiful wedding melodies and texts, rooted in ancient times, have come down to our time.

All wedding songs - laudatory, reproachful, ritual lyrical and lamentations are songs of a magical nature. They contain ancient syllabic formulas. Each tradition has its own typical tunes, which have variants in different areas, but are always recognizable. This stability is explained by their sacred meaning.

In closer to our times, wedding ceremonies began to accompany songs of other genres: popular romances, recruit farewell songs. At the wedding feast in the groom's house, dance and comic songs were performed. At pre-wedding parties, evening choruses were sung, many of which were a transformation of old wedding songs.

Magnificent, reproachful and lyrical ritual songs, despite the different semantic load, could be sung to one melody. Ritual lyrical songs differed from non-ritual ones in that, as a rule, they included direct speech, described, explained ritual situations that arose at a bachelorette party and during scolding. During the farewell ceremonies of a bachelorette party, many tunes served as a background for lamentations and looked like lamentations. They set up the bride and the whole environment in a sad way. But more dramatic is the Northern Russian contrast of the bride's crying against the background of the cheerful round dance song of her friends, which gradually alienated the bride from her family, friends and girlish entertainment.

Magnificent songs praised the wedding characters, called them by their first name and patronymic, a special song was sung to each guest. The songs for the bride and groom necessarily included wedding symbols that expressed the unity of the young: swans, a drake and a duck, vine branches, a sable with a marten, two apples, a yahont and a pearl, etc.

Swearing songs are wedding teasers, responses to gifts. In ancient times, they were probably sung only to the groom's relatives and only in the territory of the bride's yard as strangers. Magnificent ones were performed in the groom's house, at a feast, in order to propitiate the spirits of his family and force them to accept a new member of the family - the bride - under their protection. In the future, both those and other songs lost their magical meaning and began to sound throughout the wedding. They "reproached" only those guests who badly treated the "singers". Swear songs could question the truth of what was said in praise songs.

Wedding traditions of marriage in Russia are a mixture of old Russian rituals, traditions of the Soviet period and Western trends. Recently, more and more often we can see how Western-style weddings are held in Russia: with on-site registration, without toastmaster, contests, accordion player, ransom and loaf, but still, most still prefer classic Russian weddings. In this article, we will take a closer look at how a traditional Russian wedding takes place.

There are many signs and traditions, and some of them relate to the period of preparation for the wedding: this is a traditional matchmaking, which is now taking the form of a small feast of parents and newlyweds.

There is also a tradition of hen and stag parties. According to Russian traditions, a bachelorette party was held before the wedding day: bridesmaids gathered there, the bride cried and lamented, said goodbye to girlhood, untwisted her braid.

Nowadays, hen and stag parties are increasingly being held in the way we often see in Hollywood films - fun, noisy and with alcohol.

Let's go back to the day of the celebration. What rite begins almost any Russian wedding?

Bride ransom

Previously, the phrase "bride price" was not a metaphor at all! Indeed, the bride was redeemed from the parental home.

Now the money has faded into the background. The bride price, which is usually organized by the bridesmaids, takes place in the house of the girl's parents and includes contests. By passing these competitions, the groom proves that he knows and loves the bride well, and the groom's friends must come to his aid.

This is how the wedding fun begins. Having risen to the bride's house, the groom takes her to register the marriage. Usually, during the ransom of the bride and after it, the parents of the bride arrange a small buffet.

Wedding ceremony

After the ransom, it is traditionally a couple, and after it, the guests leave for the registry office, where the marriage is officially registered. There, the newlyweds perform their first dance, for which they often order live music.

After accepting congratulations from the guests, a small photo session is usually held, first for everyone, and then only for the newlyweds, during which the guests prepare for the bride and groom to leave the registry office.

Guests sprinkle the newlyweds with rice (for the imminent birth of children), sweets (for the sweet life), coins (for wealth) and rose petals (for a beautiful, romantic life together).

Orthodox church couples also undergo a wedding ceremony in the church.

wedding walk

After the marriage is registered, the guests (often only young friends and girlfriends of the newlyweds) go for a walk around the city. At the same time, they try to visit the most beautiful sights in order to take pictures there.

seven bridges

We have all seen the groom carry the bride across the bridge. It turns out that this ceremony also applies to wedding customs and traditions in Russia.

It is believed that the newlyweds will pass through seven bridges on their wedding day, then their marriage will be strong. It rarely happens that a couple manages to bypass all seven bridges, but everyone tries to cross at least one.

Also, a lock with the names of the newlyweds is often hung on the bridge, which, according to legend, holds the marriage together.

Bread and salt

Traditionally, the newlyweds after the wedding come to the house of the groom's parents, where they meet them with bread and salt.

Usually, the newly-baked mother-in-law keeps a loaf on a towel (special towel), from which the bride and groom must bite off a piece. Whoever bites off more will be the head of the family.

Wedding traditions and customs of the Russian people today are losing touch with religion: earlier, in this way, the groom's parents blessed the newlyweds, the groom's father kept icons for this. A loaf for a wedding is a tradition that originated from here.

Now they are met with a wedding loaf at the restaurant, where a banquet will be held on the occasion of the festival.

Festive feast

The holiday continues in a cafe or restaurant, where everything is ready for the arrival of the newlyweds. The design of the hall, tables and menus are usually chosen in advance.

This is a separate topic worthy of a huge post. Now we are talking about the traditions of the wedding feast.

Congratulations

The whole holiday is arranged in such a way that special attention is paid to congratulations: everyone will have time to congratulate! Usually parents are the first to congratulate, they are given a word, and they, as it were, bless their children for marriage.

After that, relatives congratulate: first on one side, then on the other, and then friends. Often, the bride prepares a special box in advance, in which she puts envelopes with money so that they do not get lost.

Dancing

After the guests have eaten, the dancing begins. But here, too, there is no lack of tradition. The first dance of the bride and groom is obligatory. Recently, it has become fashionable to prepare this dance in advance, to make it unusual, the brides change their dress for the dance, the grooms can also change clothes. Of course, such dances are remembered by guests.

Another dance, without which it is difficult to imagine a Russian wedding, is the dance of the bride and her father. With this dance, dad, as it were, escorts his daughter to another family, says goodbye to her. This touching dance reminds that a completely new time is coming in the life of the bride.

family hearth

An old tradition that is still popular today. How to hold a family hearth?

1. Organizers and assistants distribute small candles to guests.
2. Guests stand in a circle and light candles.
3. The lights go out in the hall.
4. To slow music, the presenter tells a parable about a family hearth.
5. Parents light their candles and approach the young ones.
6. A new candle flame of the newlyweds is being created - a family hearth.

Ritual of removing the veil

According to tradition, at the end of the holiday, the mother-in-law or mother of the bride removes the veil. At first, the bride should not agree, only for the third time does her mother succeed in persuading her to remove the veil.

After the veil is removed, the groom undoes the bride's braids. During the ceremony, the leader usually explains what is happening, tells the story of the ceremony. This moment of the wedding is always very touching.

Second wedding day

But the celebration doesn't end there! The first day is followed by the second day of the wedding, the traditions of which already include an informal celebration.

On the second day, guests most often gather in nature, where they drink, sing songs and fry barbecue. It is rare these days to celebrate a wedding for more than two days. After the wedding, the newlyweds can go on a honeymoon trip.

These are the wedding traditions in Russia. Of course, these are not all the rituals that exist, many of the traditions are already leaving, but they are being replaced by new ones.

So, less and less, fortunately, at weddings we can meet vulgar contests that were very popular 10 years ago. Now theme weddings and outdoor weddings are gaining popularity.

In any case, you are not obliged to follow all the wedding traditions and customs, the main thing is that your wedding is remembered and liked by you!

What is an old Russian wedding in the minds of a modern person?

It can be said that the Russian wedding of those times was a general celebration with drinking and dancing, joy, a holiday for everyone, but in fact the wedding was a completely thought-out procedure, prescribed in advance by customs. It is difficult even to imagine all the variety of those signs, orders and principles on which the wedding was based in the old days.
In general, modern ideas about the ancient Russian wedding are very vague, there is practically no complete and reliable information, basically, all that we have left is chronicles, materials from historians and some archaeological finds that allow us to draw up only a general picture.

Ancient chronicles, on the other hand, say that there were no common Slavic wedding traditions as such, customs were different among different tribes. So, for example, the meadows were more respectful of marriage ties, considered them sacred, and spouses were charged with mutual respect, maintaining peace in the family. Other tribes, such as the Drevlyans, the northerners simply abducted the girls they liked, including from other tribes, and without performing any rituals began to live with them. Polygamy was also not uncommon in those days.

For Russians, a wedding as a system of rituals that secure marriage developed around the 15th century.

After the prohibition of pagan beliefs in Russia and the introduction of Christianity in everyday rituals, a vacuum formed: it was impossible to turn to the Magi, the church could not yet take into account the many needs of the people in the sphere of rituals. If the princes and boyars got married in the church, then it was not yet available for the rest of the population, the required number of churches had not yet been built, the liturgical literature had not been fully translated. For some time, the successors of pagan rituals were buffoons, performing the duties of pagan priests. By the way, the church mercilessly fought buffoonery and eventually won. In the 17th century, buffoonery was prohibited by royal decree.

It is now impossible to determine in its entirety the influence of buffoons on the wedding ceremony and take into account the degree of their participation in the wedding game itself, but the realities preserved by folklore show that the range of their influence and participation was quite large: from the musical accompaniment of the wedding train to participation in the folk way of consolidating marriage and organization of fun during the wedding feast in the house of the bride and groom, as well as participation in individual episodes of the wedding game, regardless of its local varieties: exit “with a hook”, “with a horse”, “for the ball”, “put the mother-in-law on the balls”, read a list of dowries or “strange” decrees with rules of conduct for a young wife in the future, etc. It is possible that many generations of Russian buffoons were the creators of the most poetic and cheerful sides in the ritual complex of the wedding game. Their duties later passed to the wedding bridesmaids.

The wedding game grew into a ritual and began to develop in two ways. On the one hand, in the grand ducal, royal, boyar life, a solemn ceremony took shape that followed the church order, saturated with religious content, although it kept elements of folk life , friends, travellers, ritual speeches were spoken, the young were sprinkled with hops, fed porridge, taken to the soapbox, guarded with a sword and a saber drawn, etc.). On the other hand, elements of not only church rituals (wedding), but also ceremonial from princely life (the groom is a prince, the bride is a princess) penetrated into the folk wedding game. At the same time, the folk wedding began to include comical scenes of boyfriends who came for the bride and entered into full wit, but not always modest "corruptions" with her relatives. These fights replaced the bloody fight that took place in the old days when the bride was kidnapped.

The old pre-revolutionary rite consisted of three main cycles: pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding, which was the same for all classes. With the strictest observance of customs, the first cycle included matchmaking, inspection of the house, a bachelorette party, a ritual visit by the bride and groom to the bath (before the wedding). The second cycle is the collection of the wedding train, the arrival of the groom for the bride, the meeting of the young parents in the house, the bringing of the dowry, the ceremonies after the wedding night, etc. The wedding feast occupied the central place in it. The third, final, cycle included "retractions" - visits by young people to their closest relatives. The wedding ceremony was the same for everyone. Otherwise, the weddings of each estate differed. The variety of rituals and superstitions made a village wedding different from a city one, and a noble one from a merchant one. But all the rituals were aimed at ensuring harmony, wealth and offspring in the family.

Usually, a wedding in Russia was celebrated after the Feast of the Intercession, when the entire crop was harvested, as well as on Krasnaya Gorka. Ripened mountain ash was the main decoration of the wedding hut. Clusters of mountain ash decorated not only the house. Rowan was the bride's amulet. A sprig of mountain ash was tucked into the belt of the outfit before the bride was supposed to go to church. An obligatory attribute of the wedding was a wheat wedding loaf, although the family could not always afford delicious white wheat bread. The young were greeted with bread and salt. Currently, the wedding cake is decorated with plastic figurines of the bride and groom. Earlier, the loaf was decorated with a “family tree”. The traditional Russian doll "family tree" is a horn, on which the figure of the bride is located on one side, and the groom on the other: two branches, two clans converge into one common family. And the little doll, which was tied down to the bride's branch, is a sign of a child who will unite them and make them a real family.

In the Russian tradition, there was another ritual doll, which was called "lovebirds". Her mother-in-law made it from early morning on the wedding day and gave it to the young. First, the "lovebirds" were hung under the arc of the horse, which was the first in the "wedding train", and then hung over the bed of the young.

The peculiarity of the "lovebirds" is that they have one common hand holding hands, the newlyweds go through life together. When the first child is born, another thread doll is hung between the spouses, and so on. Ritual dolls were present literally in all spheres of life of our ancestors. More than two hundred different dolls are known, but this is a topic for a separate article.

The singing of ritual songs was usually accompanied by the entire wedding ceremony. There were special "lamentations" of the bride and her girlfriends. Magnificent and reproachful wedding songs. The wedding songs mention the pagan gods of love and joy Lada, Tur, Lel and words of ancient origin: combustible stone, tablecloths, perepech, hryvnia and loaf.

An invariable attribute of any marriage is, as you know, wedding rings. How long ago and where exactly did they originate? Their homeland is the East, and from there they were borrowed by Ancient Greece. In turn, this custom was adopted by the Romans, and only then by the whole world!

Wedding rings are, as in the old days, a symbol of fidelity, a kind of guarantee of happiness and a long family life. This custom can also be considered as an echo of the once-existing custom of buying a woman. From that moment on, the ring, as it were, gave a sign to other men that this woman already belongs to another man and "you cannot buy her."

In 800, Pope Nicholas announced the right to use the rings by Christians, and from that day the ring began to serve as a sign not only of a material transaction, but also to mean "fidelity, constancy and integrity of love." It was supposed to remind people of the sanctity of marriage. There is also an opinion that the ring is a very ancient, archetypal symbol of the feminine and fertility. Putting the ring on the finger, the newlyweds symbolically connected the "male" and "female" into a single union. By the way, the peasants did not wear wedding rings, but put them on only at the wedding. The second time the ring was worn only at the funeral. Wedding candles were also kept until the day of burial and placed in the coffin of the deceased. As will be discussed below, wedding and funeral rites were similar in many ways.

In all the variety of wedding ceremonies of different eras and regions of our country, I would like to highlight the main thing in any of the wedding ceremonies, namely, initiation for the newlyweds. Festivity and festivities are only secondary, although it is on this part that it is customary to focus attention today. So, the wedding was the main in a series of initiations of a Slavic woman. The man went through his (male) initiations and by the time of the wedding he was already accepted into the community as an adult man. For a woman, marriage was precisely this transition into adult members of the community. It was believed that the knowledge necessary for a person to become an adult can only be given by deceased ancestors. And in order to obtain this knowledge, it is necessary to go to the realm of the dead, that is, to temporarily die.

Ideas about the bride as a being between the world of the living and the world of the dead are rooted in the era of pre-class societies and are found among many peoples.

According to tradition, after a home engagement, the bride immediately put on mourning: in some areas, white shirts and sundresses (white is the color of snow and death among the Slavs), in others, black (the influence of the Christian idea of ​​\u200b\u200bgrief). In the Arkhangelsk province, in general, the head of the bride was covered with a cockle, in which they were usually buried. After that, it was time for the girl to perform the rite of lamentation for her fate. Crying did not mean at all - shedding tears, as a modern reader might think, but in a special way to perform special ritual songs. Ritual laments were of two types, wedding and funeral. In both cases, the lamented person made the transition to another world. We have been accustomed for many centuries to believe that this is how the bride said goodbye to her parental home. But in fact, from the text of the farewell songs it is clear that we are talking about death: “for three forests, three mountains and three rivers”, that is, to the abode of the undead. The bride mourned herself as a dead man: in the Novgorod region, for example, people still sing about the shroud, which she wants to receive as a gift. Often a girl in tears turned to the cuckoo with a request to convey the news to her parents. This is also not accidental: the cuckoo was considered a bird that flew freely between the two worlds.

In many countries, it was forbidden for brides to speak, laugh, go out, and sometimes even sit down at a common table. They are dead, they cannot do anything except dowry, and that only because, according to popular belief, women's souls in the other world are allowed to spin and sew. The very word "bride" means "unknown" (from "not to know"), that is, impersonal, like all the dead.

Some customs keep the memory of the fear that parents once experienced in front of their "dead" daughters. It was he who underlay the tradition of locking brides in a closet. In the 19th century, this custom was still practiced, of course, purely symbolically, in the villages of the Ryazan and Pskov provinces. For brides, they also sewed special shirts with sleeves below the tassels so that they would not touch people and things - the touch of a dead man could be fatal. Finally, the traditional veil, which later transformed into a veil, was originally a means to hide the bride's look, which was once perceived as the same as a witch's. In Ryazan, brides are still called "mermaids". Now this is a metaphor, but earlier it wasn’t: in Russian demonology, mermaids were the pledged dead, that is, those who died before the time measured for him: those killed not in the war, drowned or killed themselves. They turned into the living dead, wandering between the two worlds and bringing evil to the living, until they survive their life and go to the dead forever. So were the brides.

In this context, the original meaning of the custom of arranging a bath for the bride on the eve of the wedding becomes clear. This is nothing but ablution before the funeral. In the Karelian villages, the newlywed was even laid after that, like a dead man, in a red corner under the images. Over our long history, this custom has been rethought many times. In most cases, it was perceived as a ritual marriage with the spirit of water - so that there would be more children. From the 15th century, the bathhouse was also used for the last girls' party. By the way, there were no bachelor parties then. They appeared much later, but even then they practically did not contain ritual actions.

Female relatives and girlfriends of the bride, with whom she said goodbye, gathered for a bachelorette party. The guests gave the girl pre-wedding gifts. After that, in some regions, the bridesmaids untwisted her braid, combed her hair in the middle and braided it into two braids, twisting it into a woman's headdress and fastening it on her head. Dividing the hair, as it were, they divided the female power into two parts for themselves and the unborn child. Only married women wore such a hairstyle, and now the young had to always braid two braids. In other regions, the bride's braid was untwisted by the matchmaker before the wedding, and the hair was braided again in the groom's house. There is also evidence that the braid was cut off and sent to the groom, and he kept it as a great value.

The bride said goodbye to her girlish will, parted with beauty (volushka) - she passed the ribbon to her bridesmaids, with which she tied her hair. Beauty (volushka) could also be another object symbolizing girlish beauty and freedom - a ring, a flower, a scarf, a crown trimmed with ribbons and tinsel, etc., but most often this object was a ribbon. Sometimes the beauty was kept by unmarried girlfriends, sometimes the girlfriends passed it on to the groom, sometimes the bride passed it on to her younger sister - depending on the local tradition.

The bride was also taken to the last bath in her father's house by her friends. The girls soared the bride with brooms with red flaps, lamented, saying goodbye to her. Firewood for the bath and soap were taken from the groom's yard.

As mentioned above, the groom for the wedding was already initiated and accepted as an adult member of the community, otherwise he had no right to start a family. An echo of this custom is the special folklore names of the newlywed, preserved in some regions of Central Russia. So, in the Smolensk province in the 19th century, the groom was still called "wolf", and in Vladimir - "bear". Likening the beast was a forgotten evidence that the groom went through the rite of entry into the male union, during which the young men had to "turn into" their totem ancestor. And the wolf and the bear were considered mythological ancestors of most East Slavic tribes.

So, the bridegroom belonged to the world of the living. Accordingly, his task was to go to the world of the dead, find his bride there and bring her back to life, making her a woman. The very parting of the groom with his parents and relatives before leaving for the bride reproduces the speech of a man lying on his deathbed.

Arriving at the bride, the young man found that her friends did not let him into the house. In the Nizhny Novgorod province, the “guards” directly stated that a dead man was lying in the house. The only way to get there is to pay a ransom for gates, doors, stairs, etc. In archaic ideas, this is a typical situation for a living person who has fallen into the other world. Initially, it was necessary to correctly name all the inputs and outputs so that they opened. Something similar was described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Later, the naming ritual was transformed into a ransom demand.

Friends who do not want to let the bride go act here as her afterlife companions. Equally dressed, they demanded from the groom that he guessed among them his betrothed, in other words, removed from her a deadly facelessness. It was necessary to guess up to three times. If all attempts were unsuccessful, it was considered a bad omen - the marriage would not be strong.

But the groom did not come to the bride alone either, he had a friend (the main manager of the groom's married relatives) and a thousand man (usually his godfather) with him. Initially, Tysyatsky were officials in Kievan, Novgorod and Muscovite Rus, originally the military chief of the city militia (“thousands”). This title found its way into folk wedding ceremonies from the rites of the higher classes.

These two are the bridegroom's helpers in the realm of the dead. In fairy tales and legends, various magical creatures and talking animals and birds usually act as such helpers. Without them, the living in the world of the dead is very vulnerable. Hence the huge number of wedding amulets - more than four hundred. Tysyatsky was the holder of the wedding treasury and redeemed everything that was due according to the rite. And the friend wielded a whip, whipping them crosswise, scaring away demons. He could help the groom look for the bride. A special towel was tied over his shoulder - a towel embroidered in red. It was a symbol of the way to another world: on the towels they lowered the coffin into the grave, and sometimes even laid it on the deceased. Now the friend has turned into a witness, and the funeral towel into a synthetic ribbon on his shoulder.

After the blessing of the bride's parents, the wedding train left for the church. Sometimes, before the wedding, the place of the groom is taken by the younger brother or teenager, a relative of the bride, from whom the groom needs to buy a place next to the bride. The rite is called "selling the sister's braid."

The bride rode with her matchmaker and in some cases lay down on her knees, portraying the deceased. In her hands was a broom - a talisman against evil spirits, so that she would not keep her from returning to the world of the living. Now, instead of a broom, the bride holds a bouquet. The groom rode with the thousandth. In the Kostroma and Rostov provinces, the wedding train stopped at the cemetery on the way, so that the spirits of the ancestors would not be offended that they were being taken away from them that once belonged to them.

After that, all the participants in the wedding were sprinkled with well water, and the carts drove through the laid out fire: it was supposed to be cleansed after communicating with the world of the dead. The same rite, by the way, was observed in the homelands, and at funerals.

But now all the precautions are taken, the bride is redeemed, taken to church, married and brought to the groom's house and laid on the marriage bed. Next came the feast. In Russia, the wedding feast has always been one of the most important components of the wedding ritual. Almost the entire village took part in the preparation of the wedding feast, it was an important social event in the life of the village, which after the lapse was remembered for a long time. If some families did not hold a wedding feast, then this decision was publicly condemned, so even the poorest families in the village made efforts to find funds and arrange a worthy wedding feast.

So everyone sits down at the table and begins to feast.

All except the young, in front of whom, although there is a fried chicken, they eat it only at the end of the feast. Young people are not allowed to drink or eat during the wedding feast.

"Tetera flew to the table - she wanted to sleep young."

At the height of the fun, the young people go to the cage, where the marriage bed has been prepared in advance. Under parting words, the newlyweds, having captured a ritual loaf wrapped in a towel and a chicken, close in a cage. At the door (earlier - with a drawn sword) the groom's friend walks, guarding the peace of the newlyweds.

Kunyu fur coat trample!
Push each other!
Sleep well!
Have fun getting up!

After such rather frank wishes, the guests retire to the house, but after a while they send
learn about health. If the groom answered that he was in “good health”, then “good” happened.

The next morning, and sometimes in the same evening, the young were opened. Tysyatsky opened the bedroom, often it was just a closet or a crate (the keys to the bedroom of the young were kept by him), and the matchmakers went for a sheet or a young woman's shirt.

“Having risen cheerfully”, the young people start eating. Taking the chicken, the newlywed must break off the leg and wing, and then throw them back over his shoulder. After tasting chicken and loaf, the young people join the guests, and the fun continues.

If the bride is "honest" - pots were beaten against the bedroom door, dressed up in a team and rode in the morning for the bride's parents (after the crown at the feast, the groom did not have them), they brought them and began to treat and magnify.

In the husband's house, the newlywed was already wearing women's clothes, not girl's clothes. Each area has its own version of the costume. Usually a white shirt with colorful embroidery and a festive red poneva (skirt). The next morning, a newly born person appeared before the guests, and in ancient times this was understood literally: the one who became a wife changed not only her surname (family name), but also her personal name. This metamorphosis was "officially" fixed the next day through the ritual of searching for the bridegroom's relatives in the house of her parents: there was a man - and no. Sometimes, on the contrary, the parents of the newlywed came to the groom's house and ritually could not recognize their daughter. It's like it's not her, but a completely different person. For the same purpose, the search for the deceased was also carried out. So the ritual point was put.

Over the twentieth century, the content and order of the traditional wedding ceremony was completely forgotten. From a kind of sacred act of awakening the feminine, the wedding turned into a big party on the occasion of two young people receiving a stamp in their passport.

It is hardly possible to return ancient rites to modern reality, but it is possible to rethink those that are still practiced today.

Makarova Natalia
Voevodina Olga