About Russian Wedding Traditions

Russia is a country where the traditions of our parents are very important to us. We believe in customs and superstitions. The wedding day is one of many other holidays when we employ almost all of those traditions. Everyone knows (that) the more traditions you use the happier you will be in a marriage.

The wedding is a very important event in every life. People plan it for many times before it actually happens and discuss every little thing with their parents and their close friends. They are nervous about it, but nevertheless it is a nice experience.

As a rule, on the eve of the wedding day, fiancé and fiancée celebrate the stag night and the hen night. On the morning of the wedding day the fiancé go to the home where his fiancée lives and he must “buy her out”* (coax her out?). The bridesmaids play tricks**, ask difficult questions and say “We won’t give you the fiancée! Go away or buy her out!” The fiancé needs to answer all of the questions, and give money and chocolates to the bridesmaids. Sometimes they hide the fiancée’s shoes and demand that the fiancé buy them. Obviously, the fiancé gets his fiancée, because he went through a “buy out” with his witness.

To have witnesses is another Russian tradition. After “buy out’s actions” (the buy-out?) the future newlyweds go to a local registry office. The fiancé has a male witness man and the fiancée (no comma) a female one. As a rule they are their best friends. Nowadays there is an increasing tendency for people to get married in a church. I dare say, the further we get from the USSR period, the more traditions become from the Russian Empire. By the way, when the husband and wife leave the local registry office, people who were invited to this ceremony strew (old fashioned?*** better 'shower') newlyweds with rice, chocolates and coins. These are symbols of well-being and prosperity.

Then the newlyweds should go home under seven bridges and the husband has to carry his wife under/across (it depends what you mean) one of them. As a rule in this time they have a photo shooting and after it they go to the main place where they celebrate it. What’s more, when they arrive there their parents meet them with a loaf and salt. For one thing in married life everyone wants to know who the host in a home is and the newlyweds bite it. Whoever takes the bigger bite is the host of the home. Another wedding activity is the toasts, which include numerous speeches, a great deal of music and dancing and countless toasts, frequently to the accompaniment of the refrain “Bitter!”

* to buy out = выкупать (компанию)

** hoax = обман

*** strew tends only to be used in its past tense: "rice was strewn everywhere"

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