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By ArtUkraine.com
Kyiv, Ukraine
February 6, 2003
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The Newlyweds
ArtUkraine.com photo
(Click on images to enlarge them)
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Kyiv, Ukraine......The "Ukrainian Traditional Wedding Accessories
Exhibition" now in Kyiv at the conference hall of the Ukrainian House
has been a real success and is attracting sizable crowds.
The exhibition opened on Wednesday, January 29 and the number
of visitors has been increasing each day as people become aware of the
very interesting and historic displays that are centered around the various
customs and folklore rituals that surround the traditional Ukrainian
wedding.
The Pereyaslav National Historical & Ethnography Reserve from the town of Pereyaslav-Khmel'nyts'kiy, located in the
Kyiv Oblast and the Ministry of Culture and Arts organized the
special Exhibition.
Most of the many items displayed at the exhibition were collected
by the staff of the "Pereyaslav" Reserve in the Poltava oblast from
1960 to 1980. One can find almost everything related to a traditional
wedding on display at the exhibition including costumes for the bride and
groom, towels, scarves, baked goods, folk art paintings and tapestries.
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The curator of the wedding exhibition, Mrs. Larissa Hodlina, told
the ArtUkraine.com journalist they are very pleased with the response,
"But it is such a pity the Exhibition was only scheduled to be open through
Wednesday, February 12th.
For a long time the subject of the Ukrainian traditional folk
wedding has attracted the attention of researchers, ethnographers,
historians, and folklorists.
The exhibits show the many steps in the wedding procedure including
making a proposal (svatannya), the engagement (zaruchennya), inviting
people to the wedding, making the baked goods, the farewell party for
the bride and groom, the ceremony and other aspects of the traditional
wedding.
According to information provided by the Pereyaslav museum staff
the wedding process started with the making of a proposal. This was the
most complicated and delicate part of the procedure. According to
tradition it was done by two of the older and most respected men in a
village, 'starosty'. It is said that often the success of the mission depended
on them.
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They came to bride's home to ask for the consent of her parents. In
Ukraine they normally did not have forced marriages and the parents would
ask for their daughter's decision. As a sign of consent the girl gave bread
to the 'starosty' and treated them with 'horilka'
Sometimes uninvited proposals were made and in situations where the
girl was not in agreement with the proposal she gave a pumpkin covered with
scarf and a stick named 'makohin' to the 'starosty'.
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Harbuz (pumpkin), Makohin (stick for grinding poppy seeds) are symbols of rejected proposal
ArtUkraine.com photo
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As soon as an agreement between two parties was made the preparatory
work began. While bride and groom separately would make visits to invite
relatives and friends to the wedding, selected women would start baking for
the wedding.
At the exhibition one can see various types of baked goods and the
special hand-made embroidered ritual cloths (rushnyky) that were used in
various ways, and to wrap and display the baked goods.
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Then came the separate farewell parties for the bride and groom. At
this point it was very important for the bride to have special ritual
scarves and towels that were decorated with symbolic ornaments. The
party was sad for some, as the girl was leaving her girlfriends and family
and joining her husband and her husband's family. They usually sing rather
sad songs and unbraided the brides hair.
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The Bride's Farewell Party
ArtUkraine.com photo
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On the wedding morning the groom with his friends would come to
the bride's home with presents for the bride's relatives and start trading
for the bride. The traditional costumes for the bride and groom were very
beautiful, and were decorated with various symbols.
Actually, the wedding costumes had a significant meaning - they
protected the bride and groom from evil and negative forces and attracted
the home gods. Besides the function of protection the different types of
wedding wreaths and head coverings worn by the bride also had traditional
meanings (they characterized dowry ).
ArtUkraine.com will be posting a story with photographs about the
Wedding Exhibition in Kyiv in the near future on its website.
Article by www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C.
ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
http://www.ArtUkraine.com
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