Ukrainian wedding traditions

Ukrainian wedding is the traditional marriage ceremony in Ukrainian culture, both in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora. The traditional Ukrainian wedding featured a rich assortment of folk music and singing, dancing, and visual art, with rituals dating back to the pre-Christian era. Over time, the ancient pagan traditions and symbols were integrated into Christian ones.

Ivan Kupala Day – On the eve of the celebration of Ivan Kupala Day village folks would roam through the forests in search of paporot flower, an elusive and magical flower that brings great wealth. Unmarried women, wearing a Ukrainian wreath, would be the first to enter the forest. They are followed by young men. If the couple comes out with the young man wearing the girl's wreath, they are engaged to be married.

Paying the ransom – The groom must go to the bride's parent's house and offer a ransom to get his bride. The bridesmaids protect the bride from getting "stolen" without a ransom. First, the groom offers something valuable, usually money or jewellery for the bride. The parents of the bride bring out a woman or man dressed as the bride and covered with a veil, so the groom can't see her face. When the groom realizes that it is not his bride, he asks for his true love, and the family demands a bigger ransom because she is valuable. Once the ransom is negotiated, the bride's family offers the bride to the groom.

If the bride's parents meet the bridegroom at the door with a pumpkin, it means that his offer of marriage was not accepted by either the bride or by her family, and the pumpkin is something for him to carry, so that he doesn't leave empty-handed.

In Ukrainian tradition, the groom has to buy out the bride from her family. This Tradition shows that the bride is very important to her family because they do not want to give her away easily because she is their beautiful daughter. Everything begins with the groom and his best man arriving at the bride's house and try to buy out the bride from her family. A table is set up at the front of the brides house where the groom and brides family members will put a price on the bride. As the action begins the family members of the bride start to compliment her beauty, kindness, and work ethic so that the price will go up. On the other hand the grooms best man are trying to make the price lower and more favorable for the groom. Also the groom will talk about his love for the bride, how he is going to make the bride happy and why he will be a good husband. Bridesmaids also make up tests for the groom that will see how well the groom knows his bride and if he fails he will pay more for the bride. In the end the groom and the family of the bride agree on the price, but don't think that it's all about the money, the price can be anything from candy, champagne to some money but this tradition is just for fun and is not used to sell the bride for most money. In the end the bride come out of the house and bride and groom reunite and get blessing from family. The parents of the bride and groom bless the happy couple with Korovai and Icon.

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Wikipedia