Hutsul Vesilia

When we arrived at the location in Bukovets (the events took place at the school of their village) we were greeted by an entire Ukrainian Hutsul family. They welcomed us and sang for us with a live band. Everyone was dressed in gorgeous beaded blouses and zapaska (hutsul panelled skirts). They also had beaded necklaces on and some of them used toonies as medallions! The welcome shot was a homemade spirit with a ‘golden root’ in it. After the shot, they passed out pampoushky and bread with salo and pickles spread on it. A tasty snack and we were already quite hungry as it was about 2 pm.

Then it was time to select the bride and groom. The hospodar and hospodyna Slavko and Svetlana decided to select people that were dressed similarly. They chose Nathan and Audrey who were wearing similar shirts that they bought at the market today. Maybe it’s a sign?? Jordan and Christine became their wedding party and they also selected parents for the couple as well. The hutsul babas proceeded with the ritual of dressing the bride and braiding her hair. They braided her hair together with yarn and coins (they had a string with coins attached that they weaved in as they braided. Then they twisted the braids around her head and attached a beautiful headdress. Probably best to look at the pictures to understand what it looked like.

The next tradition was to decorate a fir tree. The tree symbolizes the new family/life that is starting with the marriage and all of the wedding guests help decorate it. Today we decorated the tree with flowers made with streamers but traditionally they would also hang honey (for sweetness) and money (for wealth) on the tree.

We headed outside for the procession to the church. The bride and groom go on horseback and the guests walk behind. It was a tiny bit rainy but luckily just lightly spitting. There was a priest ready for the service in the church. He did a short service chanted in Ukrainian. Then we kissed the icons and received morovynya (anointing with oil). After leaving the church the bride and groom tore apart a korovai and shared it with all the guests. When they tear the bread it is like a wishbone, the bigger piece is good luck. Nathan’s half was the bigger part. We took a group photo and then the priest blessed us with holy water. He had a huge amount of water, the container basically the size of a big soup pot. His tool for blessing people with water was the largest we have seen and he was able to absolutely soak some people. He even noticed a few people trying to hide from the water at the back ... I think he managed to bless everyone!

There are too many nice photos for one post so I’m going to continue this in another post.

BrookeRead more