The wedding tradition in Slovakia

We share our cleaning lady with our American friend, Bill, who spends about six months a year in his restored craftsman house (a Slovak craftsman really lived and worked in it) here in Banská Štiavnica. He spends the other half at his home in North Carolina.

Last weekend, the village where Iveta lives held their annual festival, which includes a reenactment of a traditional Slovak wedding, complete with real, hand-crafted costumes and live music.

They sell tickets to fill the ‘wedding guest’ tables. The ticket entitles you to a traditional Slovak wedding dinner.  This includes all the wine you can drink and a seemingly endless fill-up of your shot glass with the local, home-distilled hooch called jablkovica – apple vodka. 

The meal  begins with a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

All meals in this country begin with a bowl of soup, even dressy affairs such as birthdays and weddings.

Then comes the chicken itself, with a horseradish sauce.

And finally the dessert.

Each course is liberally sprinkled with more wine and, because of the many occasions for toasting the young couple, the bride’s parents, the groom’s parents, etc., your shot glass is kept full of the delicious and deadly jablkovica.

Now to the ceremony itself:

The wedding procession enters to music. Not all of the wedding party are in here but most are.

 

Once they have arrived on stage, the master of ceremonies takes over and the fun begins.

Here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure:

These traditional dresses are all hand-made and hand-embroidered. Note the different kinds of headdresses.  The bridesmaids – unmarried women – are allowed to show off their hair with colorful ribbons. The married women must keep their hair under wraps.  The woman on the far left is the bride. She has a more elaborate headdress than the other maidens. More of that shortly.

Here, the bride kneels to thank her parents for taking care of her all of her young life. They’re about to hand the responsibility over to the young man to the left of the Emcee.  Before all of this, there is an interesting ritual that sees the groomsmen bringing up girls to the groom to see if one of them is the right girl for him (read “bride”). They’re all the wrong one, until, of course the last one.

The bride and groom sit together at their own table, traditionally at the head of all the other tables;  served by the others. They feed each other and they have glasses of wine and an entire bottle of Jablkovica, for all that toasting.

And here are the paying guests. We don’t have to dress in costume, though some do.

Here is a tradition we don’t see in either the U.S. or in the U.K.:  the Emcee has explained that the bride and groom must now do everything together.  He breaks a plate and they must sweep it up together. The groom’s friends like to interfere….

 

Dancing plays a big part. Here are some typical dance photos:

The married women singing while the bride and groom dance;

 

Then there is the not-so-typical dancing.  There is one more woman on the dance floor than there are men. When the music stops, the men must change partners. The man who doesn’t catch a woman must dance with a broom.  Then they switch, and the odd girl out must dance with the broom:

Another crazy tradition on the dance floor: 

The bridesmaids have come down into the audience to pick men out to join them on the dance floor. The men must kneel, then help the maiden take off her petticoat, which she then puts over the man’s head and uses it as a bib as she shaves him. (it’s probably whipped cream, and the ‘razor’ is a popsicle stick). The girls then help the men to their feet to dance. Watch closely and you’ll see Scott just getting up off his knees and dancing with his maiden. Watch for the man in the red shirt about to be shaved.

  

 

The bride must now pledge herself to her groom, but not before the Emcee unsuccessfully tries to make her promise to do all sorts of silly things, like “be the first to get up in the morning and serve your husband all day long, obeying him in all things.”

When the groom takes over and kneels in front of his bride to ask her only to be faithful and love him she, of course, says yes.

There is now just one last ritual the bride must endure: the transformation from maiden to wife.

This is symbolized by the changing of her headdress.

The married women take off her beautiful flowered headpiece and tuck her hair into all sorts of bits and bobs, starting with a black band that circles her head at the forehead. Then comes a plain blue bonnet where all of her hair is caught up and tied away.

Lastly, a white lace cap goes over all.

This occurs while her bridesmaids sing what can only be described as an a capella lament, it sounds so sad.

 

After all this dancing and toasting and singing and eating, a cold pivo goes down very smoothly indeed.

Comments

[Diane]

wowie! As a soon-to-be Mother of the Bride, I found this post particularly fascinating!!!!!!! Many Thanks (as always!)

[Carol]

... And a really, REALLY good time was had by all! Looks like beautiful weather for the occasion too.

[Cousin Judy & Aunt Shirley]

Amazing! How interesting. And I like YOUR hat! I see you found a beer, Jo! What fun you and Scott had. xoxox

[Cathy Z]

This is a great one, Jojo! I esp love the Scott's performance on the dance floor xx

[Mara]

how much fun Jo ! So wonderful that you can take part in this ceremony... xoxo :)