A RUSSIAN WEDDING.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 361, 21 February 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

A RUSSIAN WEDDING.

A Russian wedding is described by a traveller who was one of th© invitee guests. It was to take place at 8 p.m., but the bride, of course, was late. Instead of arriving at eight o’clock, it was nearly nine before she made her appearance. She was preceded by her nephew, a little boy five years old, holding an image of “Our Lord.” The child gave this to the priest, and then the service began- .... Neither organ nor any musical instrument is allowed in the Russian Church, so the choir, consisting of five men, chanted. The priest alternately reading and the choir chanting went on for about half an hour. Tho priest then addressed several words to the bride and bridegroom. Two gentlemen, “garcons d’honneur,” or groomsmen, stepped forward and were each given a crown, which they were to hold over the bride and bridegrooms head, until the end of the service. The priest then put a wedding ring on the third finger of the right hand of each, and the chanting went on as before. Then, with the priest leading, they walked three times round the read-ing-desk in the centre of the church. Until this was done they were not married. Tho now married couple were next led to kiss the steps leading to the Holy of Holies, within which no woman is ever allowed to enter. Their friends crowded round to congratulate them. Meanwhile the bride’s sister and brother-in-law made their escape and went to await the bride and bridegroom at the house, and give them bread and salt, as a symbol of hospitality. There was a reception after the wedding, and tbe bride cut up her veil and gave it, together with a piece of orange-blossom, to those of the guests who wished for a piece of it. Two or three days after, aH the guests, myself among the number, received handsome satm bags of sweets tied up with orange-blossom© and richly embroidered in gold, and with the initials of tbe bride on one side and those of the bridegroom on the other.