Traditional Ukrainian Wedding Rituals
Photo Album
Collected in Central Ukraine, 1998
by Natalie Kononenko

Click the images below for enlargements

The breads prepared for the wedding festivities. On the right is the korovai. The round breads had no special name in this area. They were used as gifts and eaten with the various meals that are part of the wedding celebration.

The bride ties a red ribbon around the korovai.

The stove where all of the food to serve the over 250 guests will be heated.

Huge pots of food are needed to feed all of the wedding guests.

The bride's special friend and helper, something like a maid of honor (she is called the druzhka) pins the special wedding corsage on the groom's lapel. She also pinned one on the groom's best friend and helper, the boiaryn.

The druzhka adjusts the bride's dress. There are no prohibitions against the groom seeing the bride on the wedding day or on his seeing her dress. The groom took the bride to Cherkasy on the morning of the wedding to have her hair done, then was present for the adjustments to her dress and veil.

The druzhka adjusts the bride's headdress and veil.

The wedding participants left the bride's home and drove to the village club. Here they are entering the club house for the formal marriage vows.

The formal marriage vows in the club. The couple has to stand on a rushnyk spread by their two mothers. Sometimes coins or bills are placed under the rushnyk and used to pay the person who conducts the marriage ceremony.

The church version of the wedding.

After the formal marriage vows at the village club, the mother of the bride ties the hands of the couple together with a special rushnyk and leads them off the stage, showering them and the guests with wheat berries, candy, and coins. The candy and coins are collected by the children

The train or poizd sets out from the home of the groom for the bride's house. Please note the svitilka, a young woman carrying a bunch of paper flowers with beeswax candles inside. The svitilka is the sister or cousin of the groom. The two candles she carries are sometimes used to tell the fortune of the wedding couple.

The poizd on the way to the bride's house. Please note that both of the starosty are tied with towels or rushnyky.

The poizd arrives at the home of the bride.

The guests at the wedding table at the home of the bride.

The bride is seated at the table and the groom has to bargain with her relatives to "buy" a seat next to her.

The couple at the table at the home of the bride. The groom gets to sit next to the bride after successfully paying for this privilege. Please note the two champagne bottles tied together with a ribbon. They are considered an obligatory part of the modern wedding table, just like a ritual tree or hiltse had to adorn the table in the past.

After the meal at the bride's home, her mother ties their hands together with a rushnyk.

The mother then leads the couple to the car that will carry them to the home of the groom. She circles the car three times. This is the formal farewell between the bride's parents and the bride and it was at this point that the bride's mother cried.

When the couple arrives at the home of the groom's parents, they are greeted with breads held on rushnyky. This couple was planning to move in with the groom's parents, as is traditional.

Another festive meal takes place at the groom's house. At the end of the meal, the starosta holds the korovai prior to its cutting and distribution among the guests. The starosta calls the parents and god parents to partake of the korovai first. Then all the other guests approach in turn. The guests take a piece of the korovai and a drink of horilka from a tray held by the bride. They then present their wedding gift to the couple.

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Natalie Kononenko is professor of Slavic Languages, Literatures, and Folklore at the University of Virginia. Her publications include studies of Turkish and Ukrainian minstrelsy and collections of Ukrainian folktales and epics. Her most recent book, Ukrainian Minstrels: And the Blind Shall Sing (M.E. Sharpe, 1998; to order: www.mesharpe.com), won the Kovaliv prize for 1997. She is currently collecting field and archival materials for her next book, a study of Ukrainian rituals of marriage, birth, and death. E-mail: nkm@unix.mail.virginia.edu

Background: Ukrainian rushnyk from the collection of the Oblastni kraeznavchyi muzei in Cherkasy. View it on Anne Ingram's University of Virginia webpage.