Wedding traditions in Russia

Wedding traditions in Russia have their origin yetin Ancient Russia, some of them are associated with the pagan wedding rites of the Slavs. Of course, time has made its own adjustments, and many wedding traditions are "modernized." There were new traditions, for example, the first dance of newlyweds for the music they chose. And some traditions (say, throwing a bouquet of the bride) were borrowed from the West relatively recently, not without the help of Hollywood films.

The wedding day does not begin with a meeting in the registry office, but with the bride's redemption. In ancient times, the bridegroom bought the bride fromrelatives in the literal sense, for money. Now the money in the rite of ransom has receded into the background, and the ransom itself represents a series of comic trials for the groom. Usually the ransom is prepared by the friends of the young people, headed by the senior witness. And before the ransom, the young are often blessed by their parents (mothers).

When young people leave the registry office, they are sprinkled with corn (now it is most often rice, and earlier for thisritual used oats or millet), symbolizing wealth. And before the festive feast, parents are treated to young bread and salt. In the old days, the bread itself was baked by parents, now, of course, the loaf is often baked to order.

Breaking or cutting off pieces of loaf served as a fortune telling, for example, who will be born first, a girl or a boy. Now they usually guess at the primacy of the house: who will bite off (or break off) a bigger piece, that will be the main one. This tradition is relatively new, the main thing was always the husband.

And when the parents of the young will pronounce their first word at the wedding table, rite of inciting a family hearth. The newlyweds hold a big candle in their hands, andparents light it with thin candles (earlier for this, lunches were used). Now this ceremony is often transferred to the end of the wedding dinner: the burning candles look more beautiful when it is already dark and you can turn off the light.

When the gala dinner is over, the young go home - they will have their first wedding night. In the old days, the young people did not go home, but to the hayloft, to the bathhouse or even to the stable. It was believed that if the place of their first bedchamber remains a secret, it will save them from evil slander and evil eye.

Nowadays it is hard to believe in the evil eye, but young often still seek to spend a wedding night in a luxurious bridal suite. Although now on the wedding night, newlyweds are usually considered money and gifts or sleep without hind legs after a busy day, and do not have sex.

If the newly married husband and wife still go home, the husband often takes his wife across the threshold in his arms. The roots of this beautiful tradition also grow frompagan times. Then the wife moved to the house of her husband, and believed that the brownie could be hostile towards a person of a different kind. Therefore, the wife was transferred through the threshold on her hands to deceive the house-guard: they say, this is not someone else's adult person, but a newborn baby.

Now this beautiful custom, like many other wedding traditions in Russia, has lost its original meaning: and in the brownies we do not believe, and the wife is not alwaysmoves to the house to her husband (often happens on the contrary, or young people enter a new apartment). But still the brides continue to carry across the threshold: why not make them pleasant and not hint that the husband is ready to wear his young wife in the hands and in a literal and figurative sense?

Wedding traditions in Russia are very diverse and numerous, all of them and you will not remember. Therefore, when preparing for the wedding, be sure to discuss with the toastmaster the holiday scenario. A good toastmaster should understand the wedding customs and traditions, along with him you can choose those that you like.