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Young girls, long before the alleged marriage and even long before meeting with their fiancé, want to look into their future, find signs that they think will be able to tell what their future fate will be. Signs at the wedding can open the veil of secrecy and tell what the girl’s bridegroom will be, where he will be from, how their future life will be.
In the past centuries, fortune telling was conducted in Russian villages at night on Christmas and during the holy week. Evidence of this can be found in many writers. Remember these familiar lines:
"Once in Epiphany party
Girls wondered:
Over the shoe slipper,
Having taken off their feet, they threw "....
With the help of the divination described in Zhukovsky’s poem, the girls could find out the side where the bridegroom would be from.
The following fortunetelling, the purpose of which was to find out what kind of groom the girl will have, can be attributed to the signs at the wedding.
Fortune telling
For this fortune-telling, it was necessary to find a log in a woodpile. Why did they get their backs to the woodpile and, squinting, took out the first log that came across. The log was carefully examined. After all, it was by his appearance that they knew what would be narrowed: if the surface is smooth, the groom will be very beautiful; the log fell with a thick but smooth bark - wait for the rich groom; but if the bark on the log is clumsy and rough - the groom will not be very attractive.
Fortune telling with rings
Girls collected different rings from friends and acquaintances and put them in a sieve with groats. Then the girls took turns taking out the rings and predicted grooms for them. Signs were as follows: a gold ring - to marry a girl to a merchant, and if a gold ring, and even with a pebble, then to a gentleman; got a silver ring - the bridegroom will be from a good family, and pulled out a copper one - the future bridegroom will be poor. If suddenly some girl does not find a ring in the croup, then this year she will not marry.
Fortune telling at the hole
Fortune-telling and signs at the wedding often took place in a playful way, with many jokes and practical jokes. One of these fortune-telling can be attributed to fortune-telling at the hole. A cheerful flock of girls went to the hole and tried to get the pebbles from the bottom (of course, if the hole was shallow). Smooth pebble - rejoice, the bridegroom will be beautiful; rough - do not drink water from your face, you will get an ordinary-looking groom.
Signs at a wedding usually begin already from the moment of matchmaking. One of these signs: the matchmakers are better off not coming to the bride’s house on Wednesday or Friday, as well as on the thirteenth of every month. And if the matchmakers managed to quietly touch the doorjamb, then the matchmaking will be successful. Also, for a successful matchmaking, the matchmakers had to sit under the ceiling beam in the house where they came to marry the bride.
During the wedding, there are also several signs at the wedding. Previously, the bride’s parents tried to arrive unexpectedly at the bride’s house. And there all the "wealth" was already on display: carpets, fur coats, curtains, blankets. Moreover, many of these things were usually borrowed from neighbors and friends. And the sign was this: after the bridegroom, the groom was brought a glass of mead and looked. Drink - like the bride, just take a sip - did not like.
Before the wedding at the bachelorette party, the bride must cry. There is a sign to the wedding that if the bride sheds a lot of tears before the wedding, then in marriage her life will turn out very well, and if not enough, she will cry after the wedding.
Among the signs for the wedding can be attributed to the mandatory bathhouse before the wedding. The bride must appear in front of her future husband in all her glory in order to “wash off” her former free life and wash off the “girl’s bullets”.
The signs at the wedding include weather related signs. Rumor has it that snow or rain on the day of marriage is to happiness and wealth (despite the inconvenience and forced change of all plans). And if there’s a mess in the yard, then life in a marriage will be dissolute. It is also undesirable for a strong wind to blow on the wedding day or a blizzard - they will blow out both happiness and wealth. Sunny, clear day - to luck and joy.
Signs at the wedding were often associated with the calendar. If the wedding in May is toil, during haymaking, it is not necessary to play the wedding, but to work. The best time for the wedding ceremony is Veil and the so-called wedding weeks. And on the dates of significant religious holidays, weddings are not performed at all in the church. These are dates such as: Christmas fast (from November 28 to January 6), Christmas time (from January 7 to January 20), Assumption post (from August 14 to August 27), 14- January, Baptism (January 19), February 15, April 7, September 10-11, September 21, 26-27.
