Wedding train

Special terms denoting the wedding train and collectively its participants are characteristic primarily for the Eastern Slavs: Rus. train , belor. ukr train , z.-rus. Vitebsk. trains , Moscow., tool. ride ; Archangel., Vologda. device ; Russian wedding , belor. wedding, vyaselle , polish. wesele , kashubsk. vesele ; Brest matchmaking, matchmaking, crown ; Smolen. squad , belor. friendly , Ukrainian squad , Slovak druzina , low cop. druzyna ; Kiev. friendly , equal. friendship ; Yu.-Bel. bceda ; Ukrainian lugan. brothers, team ; Zhytomyr. Posag , Slovak riša . Other Slavs use the usual names for a procession, procession, or retinue for a wedding train: serbochor. turn , polish. orszak , Slovak sprievod , etc.

For the Russians, all the groom's wagons were in red shirts (Yaroslavl.), With paper straps on their hats (Voronezh.), With scarves or shawls tied over their clothes (Astrakhan.), On their shoulders (Pskov.), With a towel over their shoulder (Yu .-rus), with needles thrust crosswise into the floors of outer clothing, and with a net tied under a shirt as a talisman (s. Rus.), women are tied with red woolen scarves (Vologda); Belarusians and Ukrainians have men with a towel or belt over their shoulders and with a slip on their chest or hat; Montenegrins - in festive white shirts and with a gun behind their belts, etc.

The most important participants of the groom’s wedding train are his planted father, senior matchmaker and / or friend . When there are several of these people, they are divided into older and younger. In addition, each of them may have an assistant. Married women participate in the groom’s wedding train - his planted mother and one or more matchmakers , as well as the boyfriends, friends of the groom (including witnesses at the wedding ). Often, among the traveled, a group of single guys, comrades of the groom, stands out terminologically. Sometimes the riders accompanied the wedding train: among the Russians, there were Cossacks with pistols (simbir.), Front-rank workers or childbugs (olonets.); near the Poles Kuyav on the sides of the wedding train rode friendship.

At the entrance to the bride’s house or to the church, a messenger was sent forward to inform about the arrival of the wedding train. For Russians, this was usually a friend, for Slovaks - a standard bearer, among southern Slavs - special persons. A special participant in the wedding train among the southern Slavs, Slovaks , part of the Czechs and Poles, western Ukrainians and Belarusians of western Polesie was a standard bearer with a wedding banner.

In addition to the banner, the attributes of the wedding ranks in the wedding train were a wedding tree and a rod. At the Poles of Malopolski, in front of the wedding train, an older matchmaker or a friend ( starosta, starszy družba, marszałek ) rode , shaking the tree. On the way to the wedding and back, the same people at the head of the train waved a tree or danced with it (gender). The western Ukrainians rode with a tree senior boyar (Ivano-Francs.). Among the Russians, one of the participants in the wedding train waved along the way to the wedding with a branch - a pine branch decorated with dolls, with a bell, a handbrake and beads (eagles.). At the Montenegrins of Primorye, in front of the wedding train there was a machetar with a sword and a standard bearer (barjaktar), brandishing a sword and a banner. Drinks in the wedding train were managed by the referators (Perm.), The brewer (Vologda.), The lagoons (Nizhny Novgorod, Samar.), The gag (Tver.), Etc., shinkar (Ukrainian. Chernigov.), Chuturash (Montenegro.) , buklijash (Serb., Montenegrin.), buklijaš, barilonoša (Croatian), as well as a friend, senior matchmaker, prekumtsi (Serb.), water commander (Montenegrin.), etc. They treated the people who were drunk on the way along the wedding train. Bread or cakes were brought to the bakery (Vologda.), Cow, cow barn (Novgorod.), Loaf (tambov., Saratov., White min.), Two cakes (tool), and also the groom's father (olonets.), One or several friends (archangel., Nizhny Novgorod.), senior matchmaker ( slovak . starejši ), women and girls (slovak.). For the Russians, special ranks were responsible for the groom’s headgear: a cap-cap or a pillar-cap carried his cap with him (Novgorod), a hat cap was removed from the groom's cap when meeting people on the road (Rus). The icon was taken by a friend or big brother of the groom (Vologda.), Big boyars (perm.) Or small . The wedding train was usually protected from spoilage by a friend (Pskov. Friend-loathsome ), a big man - a senior friend (Tver.) Or a thousand (olonets). In the Russian North, he is also often a professional sorcerer. In some places, a priest participated in the wedding train (Vologda. Sacred priest ), who rode in the first sleigh with the groom's father (archangel.), Holding a cross in his hands (Vologda.). At the southern Slavs, a wedding jester took part in the wedding train: Maked. Veselbar , S.-kh. chaush , veseljak , bosn. chao, chao , horv. šubaša , etc. The guests also entertained the water and the old with the Serbs. At the Slovaks, in front of the wedding train, bláznivi svati with bottles of wine went to the wedding, and one with a wedding banner, they rode to the music and lifted up others ( trench. ). Among Russians, the role of a buffoon was played by a friend. Relatives and guests from the bride usually arrived at the wedding feast to the groom later, after the young arrived there. Most often, the bride was accompanied by her brother or several brothers in the wedding train for the wedding. With a bride, her planted mother (godmother) or matchmaker often went to the wedding. Sometimes she drove a bride’s wedding outfit on the train (Vologda.). Participants of the wedding train from the bride were also her boyfriend or senior matchmaker, as well as friends. The participants of the wedding train to the wedding and to the groom's house were also musicians who walked in front of the train (Z.-Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian), rode in the first sleigh (floor, kashub., Puddle) or the end of the wedding train, before the very last relatives (slov.). Often on a wedding train, special persons carried a dowry ^[1] .

The train was called the motorcade accompanying the groom. The main figure of this stage is my friend . The groom preserves his dignity and does not take part in the "action". On the way to the peasants, blockages are built in advance, they block the road, they do not open the gates, and the girls and girlfriends of the bride demand a ransom. The task of my friends is to talk them about, to charm, to give as little ransom as possible.

• Wedding ransom from the Slavs
• Wedding

• Wedding train / Gura A.V. // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2009. - T. 4: P (Crossing the water) - C (Sieve). - S. 106–109. - ISBN 5-7133-0703-4 , 978-5-7133-1312-8.
• Russian people. Weekdays and holidays. Encyclopedia / Comp. I.I.Shangina. - SPb. : ABC classic, 2003 .-- 558 p. - ISBN 5-352-00650-6 .
• Shangina I.I. Wedding train // Russian way of life . - M .: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2007. - S. 712-714 . - ISBN 978-5-902725-05-3 . Archived on October 29, 2013.

• Wedding train (flirtyem.ru)
• What a wedding without a wedding train! (domnica.ru)