A very traditional Ukrainian wedding
Festival of wedding rituals and traditions held in the Kyiv region
Interest in all things ethnic is increasing throughout the world, and ethnic weddings are no exception. When people talk about traditional Ukrainian weddings, they often don’t have the faintest idea of what they should look like. Although each region of Ukraine (even villages) has its own set of wedding rituals and traditions, the basic form of the traditional wedding is practically the same throughout the country.
The Rozhanytsia Festival, which took place on Oct. 11 in the village of Bobrytsia in the Kyiv region, reminded visitors of a real Ukrainian wedding with the help of songs, dances, and the traditional Ukrainian wedding cake, called korovai.
WISDOM EMBEDDED IN CLOTH
“Ukraine is geographically diverse: there you have marshes, here you see forests, and over there are mountains. So ethnic art is embodied in various ways,” explained Roman Korniienko, the director of the Choven Theater and founder of the Rozhanytsia Festival of Ukrainian wedding traditions. “But we are not trying to show differences: we are showing the variety that is inherent in Ukrainian culture.
“The Rozhanytsia Festival is a revival of the Ukrainian traditional wedding on the basis of the national culture. We plan to organize a live wedding next year, and everyone who wants to will have an opportunity to get married in the proper way and form a correct and healthy family line,” Korniienko said.
A traditional Ukrainian wedding consists of three stages, called porohy (thresholds): the one preceeding the wedding, the wedding itself, and the one that follows the wedding. The division into these three stages unites various Ukrainian wedding traditions into a single one.
“The stage before the wedding is the largest one,” Korniienko continued. “The wedding itself is practically the finale. The stage before the wedding helps the bride realize that she is no longer a girl and has no right to make merry or remove her kerchief. It prepares the bridegroom for the role of father. The stage after the wedding usually includes a playful wedding of the parents, who are getting ready to become grandparents.”
The Ukrainian word for wedding — “vesillia” — is derived from the word “veselytysia” — to make merry. “Despite the carousing, the newlyweds traditionally did not have the right to drink any alcohol. They ate honey chased with some bread, and drank some wine, but nothing else. Something else was awaiting them: the preparations for making a family. Only the parents, relatives, and friends took part in the merrymaking. This tradition has mostly disappeared today; only the merrymaking remains,” explained the festival organizer.
The rozhanytsia, which has become the symbol of the festival, is a woman giving birth to a child. In the Ukrainian folk tradition, which is rooted in the pre-Christian era, the female is marked with a special sign that has become an element of Ukrainian embroidered runners, called rushnyks, and women’s embroidered blouses —red thread on white linen.
“We chose the symbol of the rozhanytsia, because the cult of the female is returning to Ukraine. I personally view it as an aggressive one, but it takes a milder form in Ukraine (because Ukraine is female). The rozhanytsia is traditionally depicted with raised or lowered hands: with raised hands when the sun rises and the Pokrova (Protectress) when she lowers her hands over people. But the main thing is that the family tree springs from her head.
“The symbol of rozhanytsia is often seen on rushnyks. It is always the same ornament, for example, on the embroidered cloths of the Rivne and Chernihiv regions. This idol first appeared in the image described above, and later it returned to the people as the Virgin Mary. We want people to understand that there is nothing pagan here. There is simply wisdom embedded in cloth and folk things.”
“The symbol of the rozhanytsia is the symbol of a family. When Christianity appeared, it started to symbolize the Virgin Mary, who is the Berehynia (hearth mother) and Protectress,” said Olha Zolotariova, an actress at the Choven Theater and one of the organizers of the festival.
These pre-Christian symbols have become organically interwoven with the Christian religion and become part of it. “If you treat them sensibly, such symbols and the church should not clash with each other,” said the actress. “We try not to reject this primordial symbol. Instead, we try to unite these things because we have a Christian state and all of us were baptized. Every ornamental design on the embroidered shirts and blouses that we wear is not simply a rhombus or a circle. It is very important for women to wear the symbol of the rozhanytsia. One should be able to combine symbols: and skilful embroiders are aware of this.”
The traditional Ukrainian wedding consists of rituals and traditions of pre-Christian origins, but no clergymen would ever think of opposing them. The residents of the village of Bobrytsia don’t see anything dangerous here. “We inherited these traditions from our grandparents and great-grandparents, and we are passing them to our children,” the village women said.
BOBRYTSIA REMEMBERS ITS HISTORY
The Rozhanytsia Festival, which has already been held twice, is dedicated to the church holiday of the village of Bobrytsia. It is located near Kyiv, but it has managed to preserve its identity. It has an interesting museum collection devoted to the history of the village. In the past two years a villager named Mykola Kovalchuk has amassed a full-fledged collection of artifacts for the local museum, which still does not have its own premises. The collection includes antique clothing and household implements, but the main treasure consists of 2,500 photographs and documents that reveal the history of Bobrytsia. Kovalchuk and his fellow villager have even published a history of Bobrytsia called An Immortal Part of Ukraine: My Little Bobrytsia.
The first settlements on the territory of Bobrytsia date to the 11-12th centuries. These were the first defensive structures of the princely town of Bilhorod. People began settling here in the 1600s, during the rule of Hetman Bohdan Kmelnytsky. The River Irpin that flows immediately beyond the village marked the border between Poland and the free Cossack lands.
“Eighteen of our villagers were repressed in Soviet times,” Kovalchuk said. “Some families were repressed for being wealthy and creating their welfare with their own hands, loving, and giving birth to children. Some of them were shot or tortured to death for refusing to join the collective farm.”
Today the photos and lists of these people have become part of the history of Bobrytsia, which many villagers still recall.
INTERRUPTED HAPPINESS
The festival’s packed program included brief re-enactments of key wedding rituals typical of different regions of Ukraine. One of the most interesting ones involves bringing out the ritual cloth of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The large piece of linen is blessed in the church. Afterwards, it is held by unmarried girls and generously strewn with grain, wheat, and candies. Finally the girls tear the linen. Each girl tries to tear off the largest piece to make a rushnyk or a blouse out of it. The girls must embroider the piece of cloth they get with red thread. Later, this rushnyk or blouse will become part of their wedding.
“I was here last year, and I managed to tear off a large piece of linen. I even embroidered it, but I haven’t gotten married yet,” said one of the guests at the festival.
The members of the Troian ethnographic group from the Rivne region observed this ritual with interest. Their region does not have one like this, and barely anyone even holds traditional weddings.
“We used to bake korovais. There were special women who baked them, as well as bridesmaids,” explained one of the members of Troian. “I got married this way, and I was wearing a wreath with ribbons. Everything is different now. We used to have wonderful weddings, where we sang different songs. For example, the women who baked the wedding cakes would sing: ‘There is a puddle in the kitchen garden/ My sweetheart is lying sick/ Once I hear the music/ I’ll start to dance.’ Wedding parties used to be more interesting. Now people get drunk, eat until they are bursting, and they don’t sing anymore. All they do is yell, ‘Kiss the bride!’”
The singers from the Dzherelo group based in the village of Honcharivka in Lityn raion, Vinnytsia oblast, say that their village has preserved all the local wedding traditions.
“We mainly have traditional weddings because our village is a small one. All the villagers come to the wedding. And we ask all the villagers to bring ingredients for the korovai. All the women come and bring eggs, flour, and sour cream. And on Monday after the wedding all the songs and rituals must prove that the girl was a virgin before the wedding. ‘Don’t cry, mother, don’t cry/ Put on red boots/ Trample your foes/ Your daughter has earned her pies.’ This song means that the bride is ‘white’ (honest), not wanton.”
The list of regional Ukrainian wedding traditions is endless, and the organizers promise that next time they will re-enact an authentic Ukrainian wedding.
