Experiencing A Ukraine Wedding

Victoria — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 07:56:10 +0000

Everyone is becoming more and more interested in ethnic customs and weddings are one of the biggest times in people’s lives when they want their ethnicity to show. October 11, 2008, marked the second annual Rozhanytsia Festival in the village of Bobrytsia in the Kiev region that is the perfect example of what a truly traditional Ukrainian wedding is like. Even though the many villages in Ukraine has their set of customs, rituals, and traditions when it comes to their young people – and old people – getting married, the basic wedding, which visitors to the festival got to experience, is the same all over the country. The wedding included traditional songs, dances, and wedding cake called ‘korovai’ in Ukrainian.

Because of Ukraine’s diverse geography, there are plenty of differences within each wedding ceremony. The director of the Choven Theater and founder of the festival, Roman Korniienko stated that the festival does not try to show the differences. Instead, the festival attempts to show the variety of the traditional throughout the country. He is hoping to organize at least one live wedding for next year’s festival in an effort to revive the old traditions.

A traditional Ukrainian wedding is in three parts or ‘porohy’ and each division encompasses various Ukrainian traditions. The stage before the wedding is usually the biggest one with the wedding itself being the finale of the celebration in which family members and friends – but not the bride and groom – get to drink and ‘make merry’ on their behalf. Additional traditions are being revived as the festival planning for next year continues in the hopes on enlightening Ukrainian youth – and the rest of the world – of some of the traditions that have almost been lost.

The Village Of Bobrytsia And It’s Rozhanytsia Festival

Victoria — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:11:08 +0000

The small village of Bobrytsia outside of Kiev probably wouldn’t be very well known if it wasn’t for its Rozhanytsia Festival. This festival which has been held the last two years is dedicated to a church holiday in the village as well as reviving many Ukrainian wedding traditions that people are probably not even aware still exist. It is also the home to a small, yet comprehensive museum about the village’s history. The museum does not yet have it’s own space, but Mykola Kovalchuk, a resident of the village, has spent the last two years collecting artifacts that tell the villages story. The collection so far has antique clothing, household, items, and over 2,400 photographs and documents that reveal the village’s history. There is also a published history of the town called ‘An Immortal Part of Ukraine: My Little Bobrytsia’, which Kovalchuk and other villagers put together.

The village itself dates back to the 11^th to 12^th centuries when it was the first defensive structures of the town of Bilhorod. In the 1600s the area started to see more and more people settling there during the rule of Hetman Bohdan Kmelnytsky. The River Irpin runs close to the village’s boundaries and at the time it marked the border between Poland and the Cossack lands. The village’s historical collection notates how many of the people were treated from the 1600s through today and it outlines the history vividly and is definitely a collection worth seeing and a town worth visiting.

You can get more information on the Rozhanytsia Festival at Dehb.com

Ukrainian Guide » Bobrytsia

Experiencing A Ukraine Wedding

The Village Of Bobrytsia And It’s Rozhanytsia Festival