The Ukrainian Wedding: Pre-wedding
The Ukrainian Wedding... where do I start.
I was fortunate enough to participate as a first cousin in law in a Ukrainian wedding recently. Regardless, I initially thought of summarizing similarities and differences between weddings I've attended but I felt I would not do the Ukrainians justice without writing about the wedding I attended.
I don't even know where to start but let me assure you that dancing and dancing and dancing, traditions and horilka (vodka) were definitely overflowing. As I gather my thoughts, it hopefully makes most sense to express it in chronological order.
On the day of the wedding, I arrived with my wife and my little one at the groom's parents house at 10am. To my surprise, I saw two wedding cakes in the kitchen. Now, I thought I knew about the Korovai bread (wedding cake) tradition but it will later blow my mind away. As usual, a Ukrainian host - my uncle in law in this case, was very very generous in offering us sumptuous amount of food and beverages.
As i hung around snacking on my favorite cold cuts and vegetables, I noticed more Korovai arriving with 2 new guests. Turned out these guests were godparents of the groom and it was the tradition for godparents to gift a Korovai bread and also to wear a unique sling across their shoulder. Prior to leaving to the brides' house, the grooms parents blessed the groom and offered words of advice for the new husband. We then all proceeded to the multiple vehicles that were decorated with a cute ribbon on the door handles. I also noticed the Korovai being hauled around the cars, while the lady of the godparents sprinkle rice and candies around it to signify good luck. The male godparents then proceeded to carry the cake on their laps as everyone headed to the bride's house.
At the brides house, to my surprise, coming from a Malaysian Chinese background, my cousin in law played some games set up by the bridesmaids before entering the door. It wasn't as intense financially and also verbally but it was interesting to see another culture having the same tradition. Similarly, at the brides house, the parents blessed the newly weds and offered words of advice. They then hauled More Korovais towards the vehicles. A similar procession was done where the godparents of the bride and the parents of the wife walked around the car with Korovai and sprinkled rice and candies around the car. What happened next was really interesting where young boys and girls were then requested to run around and collect all the candies. I wasn't too sure of the significance of this.
We proceeded to the church where the ceremony went on for 1.5 hours. Besides the typical chants and prayers, I found it again interesting that the godfather of the groom and godmother of the bride had to keep a crown slightly over the groom and brides head throughout the process.
Arriving at the wedding venue, this was when the fun began. 1 hour shortly after arriving at the venue at 3pm, we were all asked to gather while the bride and groom walked down the aisle. This is a little more modern compared to the typical Ukrainian wedding and there was a DJ/Leader to lead the process. This leader was exceptionally good and kept the crowd engage. During the 1 hour at the venue, I noticed that more Korovai had arrived and there were a total of 15 Korovai that was placed on a wedding cake rectangular table! Turns out that all the godparents family, i.e. godparents of bride and groom, godparents of parents of bride and groom all brought Korovai as gifts as part of the tradition!!!! Towards the end of the wedding ceremony, the groom and bride were asked to get a piece of Korovai with their hands and the one with the larger piece will have to finish all of it but will be the head of the family.
Food was amazing, period. "cold appertizers" and beverages populated the tables and here were no room left on the table for anymore servings. Despite our best effort to eat everything, hot food was served every 30 minutes and it never stopped until 1030pm!!
I was fortunate enough to participate as a first cousin in law in a Ukrainian wedding recently. Regardless, I initially thought of summarizing similarities and differences between weddings I've attended but I felt I would not do the Ukrainians justice without writing about the wedding I attended.
I don't even know where to start but let me assure you that dancing and dancing and dancing, traditions and horilka (vodka) were definitely overflowing. As I gather my thoughts, it hopefully makes most sense to express it in chronological order.
On the day of the wedding, I arrived with my wife and my little one at the groom's parents house at 10am. To my surprise, I saw two wedding cakes in the kitchen. Now, I thought I knew about the Korovai bread (wedding cake) tradition but it will later blow my mind away. As usual, a Ukrainian host - my uncle in law in this case, was very very generous in offering us sumptuous amount of food and beverages.
As i hung around snacking on my favorite cold cuts and vegetables, I noticed more Korovai arriving with 2 new guests. Turned out these guests were godparents of the groom and it was the tradition for godparents to gift a Korovai bread and also to wear a unique sling across their shoulder. Prior to leaving to the brides' house, the grooms parents blessed the groom and offered words of advice for the new husband. We then all proceeded to the multiple vehicles that were decorated with a cute ribbon on the door handles. I also noticed the Korovai being hauled around the cars, while the lady of the godparents sprinkle rice and candies around it to signify good luck. The male godparents then proceeded to carry the cake on their laps as everyone headed to the bride's house.
At the brides house, to my surprise, coming from a Malaysian Chinese background, my cousin in law played some games set up by the bridesmaids before entering the door. It wasn't as intense financially and also verbally but it was interesting to see another culture having the same tradition. Similarly, at the brides house, the parents blessed the newly weds and offered words of advice. They then hauled More Korovais towards the vehicles. A similar procession was done where the godparents of the bride and the parents of the wife walked around the car with Korovai and sprinkled rice and candies around the car. What happened next was really interesting where young boys and girls were then requested to run around and collect all the candies. I wasn't too sure of the significance of this.
We proceeded to the church where the ceremony went on for 1.5 hours. Besides the typical chants and prayers, I found it again interesting that the godfather of the groom and godmother of the bride had to keep a crown slightly over the groom and brides head throughout the process.
Arriving at the wedding venue, this was when the fun began. 1 hour shortly after arriving at the venue at 3pm, we were all asked to gather while the bride and groom walked down the aisle. This is a little more modern compared to the typical Ukrainian wedding and there was a DJ/Leader to lead the process. This leader was exceptionally good and kept the crowd engage. During the 1 hour at the venue, I noticed that more Korovai had arrived and there were a total of 15 Korovai that was placed on a wedding cake rectangular table! Turns out that all the godparents family, i.e. godparents of bride and groom, godparents of parents of bride and groom all brought Korovai as gifts as part of the tradition!!!! Towards the end of the wedding ceremony, the groom and bride were asked to get a piece of Korovai with their hands and the one with the larger piece will have to finish all of it but will be the head of the family.
Food was amazing, period. "cold appertizers" and beverages populated the tables and here were no room left on the table for anymore servings. Despite our best effort to eat everything, hot food was served every 30 minutes and it never stopped until 1030pm!!
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