Belarus wedding traditions are quite ancient. One of the oldest wedding traditions involves the concept of “order in priority.” What this meant was that the oldest daughter was married first, followed by the next oldest and so forth. If a younger sister married before her older sister it was considered a major embarrassment for everyone.<br><br><br>In years past, weddings in Belarus (which were arranged by the fathers) typically lasted 3 days – an evening and a half at the bride’s house and an evening and a half at the groom’s house. Even today there is the custom of the bride’s family giving gifts to the groom’s family just before the wedding.<br><br>Today, to be official, all weddings in Belarus must take place at the Registry Office. For some couples this is enough, but for many couples in Belarus that is just a formality as the true marriage takes place in a church, surrounded by friends and family and much joyous celebration.<br><br><br>In ancient times – although still important to some extent even today – one of the wedding traditions involved a towel. Towels have always been an important element of Belarus culture, with different regions producing towels of different colors and patterns. In days gone by, a woman on her way to the alter would walk to the church with a towel tied around her hand, dragging it behind her on the ground. The path the towel made in the dirt was the path her unmarried friends would follow when they were married.<br><br>Additionally there was a padnozhnik towel that the bride and groom stood on during the wedding ceremony. The wedding towel marked the pathway the new couple would follow on their journey into a new life together. Following the ceremony the bride would drag this towel around the alter, once again creating a path for her unmarried girlfriends to follow into matrimony.<br><br><br><br>Even today the ceremonial towel plays an important part in a Belarus wedding. Gifts are traditionally wrapped in a towel. More importantly, perhaps, is the symbolic tying of members of the groom’s family to members of the bride’s family using towels – symbolizing the uniting of the two families.
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