And these are not at all wreaths, they do not even look like Ukrainian wreaths of flowers. These are crowns, more like Byzantine miter, pompous and somehow inappropriate at the wedding.
The very essence of marriage is based on the consent of the young to unite their destinies. This is called the oath. It has come down to us since the heathen times. Actually, the oath was the quintessence of the whole process of marriage. Young people in the presence of parents, relatives, acquaintances swore allegiance to each other. The Church could not neglect such an important ritual that influenced the behavior, the consciousness of people. After the young couple began to marry in the church, the oath became an obligatory ritual of the marriage ceremony. It was the specific nature of the Orthodox Church. Here it should be noted that the Orthodox Church, for many years of its independent life (although officially it belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church) acquired many attributes that other churches did not know. These features are reflected in the liturgical books, rites and festivals of the church.
Liturgical, and in general church texts constantly changed and almost never had any definite unanimity. This applies to the rite of the sacrament of marriage. Even in the old Greek texts there is no complete unanimity - they contain sometimes contradictory ideas. So it was in the books made in different parts of Ukraine. In the old Ukrainian bookmarks are indicated two stages of the oath. The first is betrothal (betrothal) and weddings.
According to the 93rd rule of the sixth Ecumenical Council, the one who secured, should already be married. And if someone had married a girl who was engaged to another, then "let the adultery be guilty". Sometimes, under many influences, after all, freedom was given to the young to disperse even after the church engagement. Diver not only after the betrothal, but also after the wedding. As we mentioned earlier, this happened in 1774, when the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church joined the betrothal and the wedding in one rite, which was held on the day of the wedding.
The custom of swearing in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was respected. Without him, the wedding was not considered legal. And all because this custom is folk, and therefore it had great power and authority. In Shumlyansky's metric from 1687, the text of the oath is given at the end of the fourth book, and below it is a note: "Without sowing the oath, malicism can not and can not be important." This rite is found in all the old Ukrainian books, beginning in 1646 both Lviv and Kiev editions. In the Moscow treasures there is no vow.
These "liberties" of the Little Russians were reported to the Russian Tsar Peter I, and he ordered the Holy Synod to keep a close eye on whether there were any differences from the Moscow church books in Moscow. This order, dated October 5, 1720, was the real beginning of the destruction
ordinary features in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Since that time, the booklets have already been printed in Moscow according to Moscow samples, from them such an important rite at the wedding falls, as an oath. But in the Lviv treasures, where the strict king could not reach, the custom of the oath remained to this day. In Galicia, even today, during the wedding, young people swear fealty to each other. Spontaneously restored this ceremony and in Volhynia. Grandmothers who remember him often ask a clergyman: "Children are crowned with an oath to make the wife stronger."
This form of the oath is interesting in that it definitely demonstrates the democratic spirit of marriage. At a time when the canonical church idea claims that a woman is a slave to a man, in Ukraine and Russia, young people are promised on oath: "I take you as an assistant," the young man swore, and she also said: "I am taking you as an assistant." So the two young men converge and swear at each other as equals, converge to help each other's lives to help each other and swear not only at this, but also that "it's never a happy and unhappy time to lower you to your death or my ". This is already a high civil understanding of the very essence of marriage, the most important duties of the spouses. All this testifies to the high level of culture of our people since ancient times.
After the oath, the young are crowned. When they both answer in the affirmative, the elder boyar and the boyfriend spread a wedding towel in front of them on the floor. Know, the towel can be embroidered with different flowers or patterns, with all sorts of colors, except black.
Young after the wedding come home to the young. In some cases, at the gate, mainly on the doorstep of the house they are met by their parents. The mother showered the newlyweds with grain and kisses both.
Children thank. Kiss mother. Then the father pours the young on a glass while they drink, he instructs them, and wants to live peacefully and for a long time. Young thank and kiss father. After that, parents give the newlyweds icons, which they were blessed with. They kiss the icons and thank their parents.