Hutsul wedding - decorated pine tree, caster and grating

In the mountain villages of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, a wedding is like a fairy tale. Even today, the Hutsuls keep up their wedding traditions that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers followed. Even today they dress in folk costumes, decorate their houses, horses and even trees. For the wedding to the Orthodox church, the young go on festively decorated horses.

Hutsuls - who are these highlanders from the Eastern Carpathians?

The Hutsuls (or Hutsuli) are an ethnic group of Ukrainians who, according to one version, are descendants of the Ulits, an ancient tribe of Eastern Slavs. The etymology of the ethnonym "Hutsul" has also not been fully explained. There are several hypotheses explaining the origin of the name - from Turkish, Roman and Caucasian to Slavic and German. It is difficult to say whether the name derives from the term "highwayman, thug", "nomad", or perhaps from the name of a person.

The indisputable fact, however, is that the Hutsuls created an original regional culture in the Eastern Carpathians. As perhaps the only Ukrainian ethnic group, the Hutsuls were mainly engaged in sheep and cattle breeding and hunting, and the Hutsul horses bred by them are famous for their beauty and endurance.

A characteristic feature of Hutsul villages is their great dispersion over a large area. Individual farms were scattered on the hills surrounding the center of the village in the valley, where the Orthodox church, community office, school and inn were located. The residential part of the houses was enclosed on three sides by outbuildings, protecting it from wind and frost.

On the basis of scientific research, the Hutsuls, as well as the Lemkos and Boykos, were classified in the late 20th century as a Carpathian nation. Their sense of national distinctiveness is reinforced by the cultivation of folk customs and traditions, including wedding rituals.

Wedding tree and "ruszniki"

The main attribute of a Hutsul wedding remains the tree, a young pine tree, which is cut down by the groom's best men and the bride's bridesmaids on the eve of the ceremony itself. Traditionally, this falls on a Friday, as the wedding itself always takes place on Saturday. Nowadays it happens to prepare the tree only on Saturday morning. This is in preparation for the wedding.

On the tree of the pine tree, which is a symbol of the Carpathian Mountains, colorful ornaments, roses, tissue paper and ribbons are hung. In the past, the tree was decorated with "patches", wooden shavings, and nowadays - with paper flowers and toys. From this tree the wedding begins. It stands next to the bride at the table.

The matchmaking and marriage ceremony usually takes place in the spring, and the wedding itself should take place before the beginning of Lent. Hutsuls are a pious people and do not hold any parties during Lent. According to old customs, when the matchmakers come and the girl gives them embroidered grates, it is a sign that one should prepare for the wedding. A ruff is a strip of white embroidered cloth in the form of a towel. The Rusznik has a symbolic meaning; bread and salt are served on it, it is hung over icons and portraits of ancestors, and it is used in many ceremonies, including those related to weddings.

The symbol of entering into marriage is the moment when the young "stand on the grate." Each girl embroiders her own grates. Therefore, there is no shortage of female master embroiderers in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Original hand embroidery is used to decorate both the soroczki (shirts) of men and the clothes of children. And the beads, bracelets and other ornaments, which adorn both young Hutsul women and older ones, could be envied by the most fussy metropolitan elegant women.

After the wedding, the tree is tied to a pear or apple tree near the house and stands until it withers and the needles fall from it.

Maiden and bachelor party

On the eve of the wedding, a ceremony was held to bid farewell to the future spouses to their unmarried status, a custom sanctified by centuries of Hutsul tradition. On Friday, as the wedding was always held on Saturday and the reception lasted from two to seven days, the young couple held an evening marking the farewell to their maiden and bachelor lives. The brides and grooms celebrated the evening separately.

The groom and bride spent the evening in a circle of friends still single and not bound by family obligations. Accompanied by cheerful songs and stories, the girls wove garlands of mullet for the wedding ceremony. They prepared bouquets of flowers and branches of periwinkle for the wedding guests. They wove a symbolic garland of evergreen periwinkle to encircle the icon above the bride and groom's table.

They also made final preparations for the wedding. For this day, the bride should prepare a wedding shirt for her fiancé, as at the end of the bachelorette party it was obligatory for the boys to appear to redeem it from the girl's hands. The haggling, redemption and games were always loud and merry, and went on far past midnight. And on the coming day the bride and groom would get married and begin the wedding ceremony.

Wedding outfits

While to sign the documents related to the wedding in the office the bride could go in a white dress, to the Orthodox church - only in traditional Hutsul costume. Dressing a girl in this outfit can take up to four hours. The clothing of the "kniaz and kniahini," as they call the young in the Hutsul region, is mainly old embroideries and headgear, which are already prepared by modern masters.

The groom's headgear is a hat called 'krysania' with feathers and garland. The bride's crown - is a "chilce". It is prepared for a long time, decorated with gilding, coins - all according to tradition. The crown of the "kniahini" can only be decorated by a master, since the number and weight of various ornaments on the bride's head can be very large.

Garlic is woven into the braids to ward off evil forces, coins - to bring wealth, sprigs of periwinkle - for a long life. It is difficult to deal with the hairstyle when the girl has short hair, but with long hair it is not easy either. The bride's outfit is very expensive, so it used to pass from generation to generation, from mother to daughter.

The most important thing on the bride's head is the garland. If it is not there, it means that this is the second wedding of a kniahini. This is also evidenced by backups: if a girl is wearing two, it means she is getting married for the first time. When she becomes a young married woman, she should wear both an apron and a spare.

No less important in a bride's outfit is the so-called silianka, which is a neck ornament in the form of a narrow ribbon of different colored beads strung on threads that form ornaments, sometimes geometric, sometimes floral. In the Hutsul region, silianka is considered a talisman and is matched with embroidery on clothing. It has all the colors of the rainbow, but four should dominate: red, blue, green and orange.

The bride and groom wear a wide belt "czeres" for the wedding, sub-matching the embroidered soroka (shirt). It is made of leather, decorated with metal. In addition to the soroczka and belt, the groom's outfit consists of black pants, high black boots, a leather bag studded with brass studs slung over the shoulder and a "bardka" a kind of hatchet - a kind of Hutsul ciupaga.

Horses and "banosz"

One more peculiarity of a Hutsul wedding is horses, as they carry the whole company to the Orthodox church for the wedding: the bride and groom, bridesmaids and best men, parents. Guests also ride in horse-drawn carriages and on horseback. The horses should also be Hutsul, so that they walk well in the mountains.

A Hutsul wedding can last 2-3 days. Traditional dishes are prepared for it, such as stuffed cabbage with potatoes boiled in uniform, white borscht on smoked ribs, banosz, kulesza, kishka, mushrooms, guslanka (Carpathian drink made of sour milk), vegetables. Hutsul people try to follow their traditions. The main dish is the aforementioned banosz - corn flour cooked in milk or cream, served with fresh bryndza, mushrooms, cracklings and greens.

A return to wedding traditions began in the Hutsul region in the 1990s, when Ukraine regained its independence.