UKRAINE: Traditional wedding ceremonies revive in Western Ukraine as young couples take several days to perform and celebrate their marriage ceremonies

Record ID: 555947

  • Title: UKRAINE: Traditional wedding ceremonies revive in Western Ukraine as young couples take several days to perform and celebrate their marriage ceremonies
  • Date: 27th July 2011
  • Summary: GROOM HELPS BRIDE OFF THE HORSE VARIOUS FOLK MUSICIANS PLAYING
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Quirky,People,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA1A1JF518E3JM84ZOLRY6TMTGA
  • Story Text: Traditional wedding ceremonies revive in Western Ukraine as young couples take several days to perform and celebrate their marriage ceremonies.
    In the village of Kosmach, young bride and groom, Halyna Yusypchuk and Vasyl Siredzhuk decided to follow their ancestors' tradition and to have a real national-style wedding.
    The whole village, all relatives and friends helped the young ones to prepare for the big day.
    Before the wedding, women dressed the bride in traditional costume singing national songs in her paternal home.
    After the bride was fully prepared, dressed in white and red, she kissed a bread held by her father, and then him, to receive a blessing, and then left the house together with the wedding procession to church where she was supposed to meet the groom.
    Traditional costumes were worn in this ceremony not only by the bride and groom, but also by the guests and relatives. The procession to church was accompanied by musicians and traditional songs.
    In church the wedding ceremony was performed, and after the bride and groom were pronounced husband and wife, they travelled back to the house where they will live together on horseback.
    Halyna said that her wedding ceremony was a unique feature of the region.
    "There is no other wedding like this, no other traditions like this. Only here in Carpathians, and especially in Kosmach," Yusupchuk said after the church ceremony.
    The whole wedding ceremony takes three to four days, and as tradition has it, begin on a Friday when young people gather at the parental home of the bride in order to decorate it and prepare it for the celebrations.
    "We could say that the wedding starts on Friday, when young men and women come to help decorate the bride's house and a place where the party for the guests will be. Usually this Fridaywith dancing. The wedding itself takes place on Saturday. On Sunday they continue to celebrate, and on Monday the close kin come to celebrate," bride's maid Roksolana Yusypchuk said.
    Kosmach brides say they don't miss modern dress and prefer to look like their mothers and grandmothers in this day.
    As many Eastern European territories, Kosmach has belonged to different countries in various periods of its 800 year-old history, including Ukraine, Poland, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and USSR.
    In 1939 Kosmach was annexed by Stalin's Red army, along with other parts of Western Ukraine and then briefly became part of the USSR.
    When the territory came under Soviet rule, much effort was made by authorities to force the inhabitants to abandon old traditions, with the shutting down of churches and the prohibition of wearing traditional dress, which was seen as anti-Soviet.
    But despite the Communists' efforts, local people have preserved some of their traditions and today are trying to pass them on to the new generations.
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