Ukrainian wedding, step 5

You might think, I make a short story long but that is just the opposite. I am struggling here to select for you the most important events from the wedding I witnessed. So here we are - just arrived at the city hall.

In my home country Poland, it is enough to marry in the church, it is as legal as a formal ceremony in the city hall. In the most of other countries - by that I mean, in all the normal states - you need to have a formal wedding to let it be accepted by the state administration.

So we entered the Zaks - which means the city hall. After we have allowed some stalinist-like assistant secretary to terrorize the crowd by giving us instructions on the standing order in the room, the couple was allowed to march inside. Our friend played "Hallelujah" on the key board. 

The song itself can make people cry, that day everyone was close to tears even more.

As an important element of a traditional Ukrainian wedding, you will always find the Rutschnik, a white tissue which has been decorated by embroidery, red and black cross-stich, a special Ukrainian pattern of Vyshyvanka.

The pattern is on the clothes of the wedding couple and of the guests, the embroidery on the bride`s dress and the groom's shirt are hand made by their mother, aunt and neighbor. Vyshyvanka manifests cultural pride of Ukrainian people and they like to wear it on many different fesitve occasions. 

After the formal act, the couple turned around which made most of the females burst into tears. It was a snowball effect.

Another traditional gadget playing an important part at an Ukrainian wedding is Kolache, a puffy bread. After the formal part was completed, the couple shared the bread with every body.

Then, still in the city hall, the first dance was to happen.

Eventually, all the wedding company has left the building, babushkas were chanting and the Vikings played pipes. The wedding procession headed towards the church, for the most solemn part of the day.