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Toporivtsi Wedding Photo Gallery
The Pre-Wedding Phase
The Wedding Day
Dressing
On Sunday morning at 10:50 a.m., the bride wore a long white wedding dress. A
few close relatives were cleaning the yard and a group of women were busy
preparing the several large meals that would be served that day.
Welcoming of guests by the bride
As guests began to arrive, the bride drank a short toast to each of them, and
they toasted her in return. In the meantime, the band began playing music
steadily, including marches when groups of guests arrived, polkas, modern pop
songs, waltzes, rus'ka, and others.
 Pinning
of the flower
About 12:30 in the afternoon, the groom's family performed the ceremony of
"pinning on the flower" [kvitku chipliaty]. The groom sat in his special place
behind a table in the yard and nibbled at food with his guests. Four of the
groom's svashky danced from the house across to the table, each holding the
corner of a large pillow on which his jacket lay. When the jacket had arrived
in front of the table, the groom's parents took the jacket off the pillow,
covering their hands first with handkerchiefs, so as not to touch it. They
passed the jacket over the table to the groom, who donned it. He exchanged
toasts and blessings with his parents. The groom's jacket had a "corsage" made
of the periwinkle pinned onto it.
video 7: The Groom's Jacket (9.4mb)
Similarly, and nearly at the same time, the bride's bridesmaids danced from the
bride's house to the bride's place behind her main table surrounded by guests.
They progressed slowly, holding a large pillow with her veil on it. Her parents
took the veil in kerchiefed hands and pinned it onto her head.
video 8: The bride's veil (3.8mb)
 Toasts
The bride, father, mother and her brother exchanged ritual toasts and cried.
Each person to offer the toast was given the small glass with alcohol covered
by a piece of wedding bread. Other guests, in order of rank in relationship to
the bride, approached her for a toast and presented her with gifts. The guests
were served lunch. The greatest number of guests arrived by approximately
sundown on Sunday, when the largest meal was served. The bride's wedding was
considered quite large, with some 300 couples invited (including children,
totalling perhaps 650 people). The groom's wedding was about half that size. As
each group of guests arrived, they were welcomed by the bride or someone in the
family, exchanged toasts with their host, and presented the family with a
financial contribution [chashka] of five US dollars.
 Wedding
procession
Approximately 3:00 in the afternoon, the bride's musicians stepped away from
their electronic instruments and took up a portable drum and three brass
instruments. They accompanied the bride and a small group of her guests on a
slow and meandering procession through their part of the village towards the
church. At the  same
time, the groom and his entourage also proceeded to the church accompanied by
music. The church was situated on a main road leading to the highway. The
bride's procession arrived from one direction, while the groom's arrived from
the other. The bride and groom each walked the last 100 metres alone, along the
centre of the road towards each other. A large group watched from all
directions. The couple kissed, then turned towards the "wedding father" and
"wedding mother" who were waiting nearby on the side of the road. They
exchanged gifts. The wedding parents carried large wedding candles.
video
9: meeting in the middle of the village (4.1mb)
 Photographs
Since there were three weddings in the village on this day and several groups
were off schedule, the bride and groom had to wait over an hour before their
marriage ceremony began in the church. They decided to take some of their
wedding photographs in the churchyard before the service.
Church marriage ceremony
When the previous marriage was  completed
and the priest was ready, the bride and groom's service began at the back of
the church, then later moved to the centre of the structure, before the small
altar in front of the icon wall. During the service, golden crowns were held
over the bride's and groom's heads, the wedding candles were lit, and they
exchanged rings. As they exited the church, the "wedding mother" distributed
pieces of bread with honey, "so the couple's life would be sweet and so they
would stick together." More photographs were taken.
Greeting the bride
The bride, her musicians and her guests left the churchyard and returned to her
family's house. The groom, with his musicians and guests, likewise made his way
back to his own home. When the bride arrived at her home, she stopped outside
the vinok and the entrance into the yard. The bride, flanked by two
bridesmaids, stood on one side of the entrance, facing her mother, father and
brother. Each of these six people exchanged formal toasts with each of the
people facing them. When they had finished, a pailfull of water was poured
across the gateway. The bride and her group stepped over the water as a rite of
purification as they passed into the yard. She was immediately stopped by a
little boy sitting on the upturned pail, and had to buy her way past him. In
this case, the boy immediately accepted the bills offered him, and guests
commented merrily that he would have been much better off negotiating for more
before he let her pass.
video 10: Greeting the bride (5.4mb)
 Celebrations
at the bride's house
Guests continued to arrive as the afternoon and evening continued. The central
meal of the bride's wedding was served to over 600 people. The dishes served
for this meal were prescribed by tradition, and included chicken broth
[dziama], baked dumplings [halushky], cabbage rolls [holubtsi], meat and
vermicelli [maina], pounded cutlets with an egg-based coating [zaiats'] and
others. Large bowls and platters were served for each four or six guests, who
ate from them communally.
The Groom's arrival at the bride's vesillia
At about 9:00 in the evening, the groom's best man arrived at the bride's
vesillia. He carried a decorated wooden cane and a large doughnut-shaped
wedding bread. He danced with the bride, ritually stopping at intervals and
holding the bread up. The bride was to look through the hole in the centre of
the bread and "see the future" in each of the four cardinal directions.
Near 10:00, the groom himself arrived at the bride's home with his two
brothers, on horseback. They stopped at the gates, with their musicians' brass
band playing and a large procession of guests immediately behind them. The
bride and two little girls from her family walked out to the gate and placed a
specially made large wreath of flowers around the neck of the groom's horse.
Each of the horses was given a decorative kerchief for its neck. The bride's
father exchanged a ritual toast with the groom, still on horseback. Each of the
immediate family members exchanged toasts with the members of the other family,
and numerous valuable gifts were passed in both directions across the line
separating those inside the yard from those on the outside. After about an hour
of toasts and exchanges, the groom rode into the yard, circling the doughnut
shaped dance area counterclockwise three times on his horse and throwing
handfulls of wedding bread crumbs to the bride's guests. The guests tried to
catch the crumbs before they fell to the ground, signalling good luck in
business for the upcoming year. The groom then dismounted and the horses were
led away. Guests and musicians of the groom, who had been waiting outside in
the street, entered the yard at this point, carrying many gifts.
video 11: The groom's arrival (4.4mb)
Dance
Many wedding guests danced for hours at the wedding, particularly the younger
ones. Girls stood around the outside perimeter of the dance area, while boys
grouped in the centre near the apple tree. Some dances were performed in
couples, but many dances were enjoyed in large circular groups. Near midnight,
the bride danced a special formal rus'ka dance with the "wedding father." Other
significant individuals in the wedding joined in couples behind them.
The presentation of gifts
The bride and groom later stood near the door to her house and received
presentations of money and gifts from the guests in a formal presentation line.
Standing behind them and clapping lightly, her family showed their respect and
honoured the gift givers. Each gift was announced and held up for viewing
immediately after it was presented. After this presentation, the bride's mother
and the "wedding mother" danced a formal rus'ka with a bag full of money, while
other dancers followed behind them, dancing with the gifts.
video 12: The presentation of gifts (5.1mb)
Removing the bride's veil and the sale of the bride
The ceremony of removing the bride's veil started with the groom, the wedding
parents and others sitting behind the main table. The brother of the bride and
the bride came dancing up to the front of the table. A conversation between the
groom and the bride's brother ended when the groom reached forward, grabbed her
forearm, and pulled her over the table to sit beside him (since this was a
ritualized action, she was "pulled" gently, and assisted by several women, who
moved the dishes aside and watched her dress). The bride's veil was removed.
Her brother tried to place a kerchief on her head with two sticks. Her
bridesmaids fended off the kerchief, arguing in song that they should be
compensated for this action. The bridesmaids and the groomsmen had a "singing
duel," each joking insultingly about the others. The groom had to keep paying
until the bridesmaids were satisfied and the kerchief was tied to her head.
When the bride's brother finally placed the kerchief on her head, it was tied
and her status as a married woman was manifested in this way. The group behind
the table danced out from behind the table on one side, while the groomsmen
replaced them and feasted on a special meal of baked chicken that was brought
for them.
Blessing
In the middle of the night, in the centre of the yard, the bride and groom
kneeled together on a large pillow and were blessed by the bride's parents.
This ceremony involved a lengthy oration [proshcha] by a special person in the
name of the couple.
The couple's departure and celebration at the groom's house
The two groups of musicians alternated playing music throughout the night.
Guests continued to dance, eat, drink and talk. Near morning, the bride and
groom, his musicians, and many of the guests took leave of the bride's home and
travelled to his home, where the music and celebrating continued until well
after sunrise. The party continued to wind down slowly all day Monday as family
and neighbours on both sides cleaned up their yards.
* The description of this part is based on the field material recorded by Dr.
Andriy Nahachewsky in 1995. The field material is deposited in the Ukrainian
Folklore Archives at the University of Alberta, project 1995.032 v1059 - v1063.
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