Dear Gentlemen,

 

This year is progressing quite well for you - we can already see several relationships coming to happy fruition and several more with promise. If you are one of those lucky men who are already making wedding plans, or if you are dating a great girl and already thinking about making wedding plans, this article is for you.

 

Depending on which country you live in, the options available to our couples are:

 

We hope that you will be tempted to experience at least a small but traditional Ukrainian wedding in your wife’s homeland after reading our article. You would have a great chance to bond with her family and friends, to enjoy delicious Ukrainian meals, and …to have so much fun!!!

 

The traditional months to celebrate a wedding are August, September and October, and during Lent (before Easter). Historically this tradition was associated with the time of gathering harvest and different religious holidays, and autumn weddings were considered to be happy and fruitful; many people still take this tradition into account. There are some periods that are considered not to be good for weddings. It is thought to be bad to have a wedding on Christmas, on Easter, or in May.

 

In modern Ukraine it is very fashionable to marry on such dates as 06.06.2006 or 07.07.2007, or for this year on 10.10.2010. However many would you say it is a prejudice and the date is not important, but it is fun to consider that there is something we should be aware of in picking the most important date of ones life.

 

Back to the Ukrainian wedding traditions: let us say that “Forewarned, forearmed”.

 

Ukrainian wedding traditions have been always rich and colorful. Of course, they have evolved and changed with time. But there is still nothing more fun than wedding celebrations in Ukraine. Every region would have their own slight differences, their own unique details.

 

In Ukraine we never say "to celebrate", but always "to play a wedding". It comes from the old Ukrainian wedding traditions, when a wedding was not just a party but a whole set of special rituals, which symbolized creation of a strong life foundation of a new family and its future well-being. It was more a theater play than a party where the solemnity and merry-making played together.

 

The traditional wedding in Ukraine starts with a formal engagement. The groom and several respected elders, usually two older, married men called “starosty”, visit the home of the bride and make a request to her parents for her hand in marriage. This visit, variously called “dohliadyny”, “domovyny”, and other terms, involves an exchange of gifts. The groom's side provides a bottle of horilka and the bride drapes the starosty with ritual towels or “rushnyky”. Each party gives a loaf of bread to the other side. Many people have heard that a bride could reject her suitors by giving them a pumpkin (“harbuz”) instead of a loaf of bread. In real life, this seldom occurs because the young man and young woman had already courted and agreed to wed before the formal engagement with their elders.

 

One of the Wedding Traditions of Ukraine says that it is customary for the groom’s mother to prepare a round loaf of “korovai” at home. This is a specially decorated loaf sprinkled with salt on top, which is brought by the groom’s mother on an decorated towel. The length of the engagement varies, the minimum being one week, the amount of time necessary for preparations.

 

The ritual part of the marriage process begins on the Thursday or Friday before the actual wedding with the baking of the korovai bread. On Saturday, or on Friday and Saturday morning if there are many guests, the bride and groom, often accompanied by a friend, the “druzhka” in the case of the bride and the “boiaryn” in the case of the groom, walk the village holding another very special and particularly tasty ritual bread (which looks like a fancy pine cone), the “shyshka”; each friend summoning his and her respective wedding guests and giving pieces of the bread to their friends. Friday evening is usually “devich vechir”, a party during which the bride bids farewell to her friends and she and they make the “hiltse”, a ritual tree which graces the table during the wedding. Saturday is the day for signing the civil marriage contract. Sunday is the day for the church service, if there is one.

 

Nowadays it is in common in the city to have only a one-day celebration, especially in the busy cities. The civil and religious marriages along with the reception are usually fit into one day. On the final day of the traditional Ukrainian Wedding, the groom arrives at the bride’s place in a car and honks in front of her house. Then the bride is escorted by the groom and both families move to the wedding venue, which can be a city hall or a church. There the wedding is legalized by way of registry. The groom then carries his newly wed wife out of the venue in his arms. According to the traditions, the bride’s mother throws rose leaves, coins, and seeds on the bride and the groom when leave they leave the bride’s place. These ingredients signify abundance, prosperity, and welfare respectively. Once the ceremony is over, the honored guests including family and friends greet the newly wed couple.

 

A civil marriage is held in the City Hall. It starts with the sound of fanfares. A Ukrainian embroidered towel is spread at the feet of the couple, they stand on it and the ceremony begins.

The one who steps on the towel first will be boss in the family.

 

A church wedding ceremony is the most touching and important moment to the couple, their parents, friends, and relatives. The priest blesses the new family for happiness, health, luck, faithfulness, understanding, love, and respect for one another. God's blessing is the most serious blessing for the new family. There are many prejudices connected with the ceremony in church. They say that if the bride's dress catches the fire from a candle, it means that the marriage is doomed. So it is quite understandable that the bride's mother is always very watchful in church, and does her best to prevent any of such things.

 

Ukrainian Wedding Traditions also include a reception in a local restaurant or at home. Fun and amusement are the keywords that best describe the celebrations of a Ukrainian wedding. There is usually a master of ceremonies, the “tamada”, who plans the party with toasts, endless jokes, and games, making sure that every guest is involved. Dancing continues often until morning. Ukrainian weddings are famous for an elaborate spread comprised of scrumptious Ukrainian delicacies. There are many fun wedding party traditions involving everybody. Little children adore weddings of their older sister or brothers, because this is the time for them to steal a bride’s shoe and then demand any ransom for it. The whole process of negotiating a ransom is a separate joyful tradition.

 

To learn more about old-fashioned traditional Ukrainian wedding please visit http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20084/70 

 

Our dear Gentlemen, if you have witnessed a Ukrainian wedding as a guest and would like to share your impressions, we would be very glad to post your story here. And when you are ready with your Wedding story: that would be the best.