How was the wedding night of the Cossacks

Despite the fact that the Cossacks have been considered part of the Russian people for centuries, their customs differed significantly from those adopted in other regions. The wedding, full of rituals and rituals, has always been the most interesting ceremony of the Cossacks. The wedding night in the newly formed family was no less colorful.

The bedroom for the newlyweds was always prepared in the groom's house. Even before the guests sat down at the wedding table, the friend took the bed, which was part of the bride's dowry, and laid it out on the marriage bed. Sheaves of ears of corn were certainly placed at the legs of the bed, and the corners of the upper room were decorated with sabers, arrows, rolls and sable furs.

A gun was necessarily placed under the bed, which was supposed to contribute to the birth of the first-born boy. In addition, all kinds of products were brought into the room, for which the area was famous. Barrels of honey, wheat and rye, loaves of bread, fruits and vegetables served as decoration of the newlyweds' bedroom.

Bowls of honey and grain, as well as unlit candles, were placed in the corner next to the icon. Folklorists and ethnographers believe that all these ornaments were elements of funeral rites. They symbolized that the newlyweds, after the wedding, died in their usual state and were reborn for family life. Therefore, oddly enough, the room of the newlyweds was very similar to the room where the farewell to the deceased took place.

Until the bride and groom entered the bedroom, the matchmaker walked around their bed several times. In her hands she held a rowan branch, on which amulets with magical signs were fixed. Historian Andrey Yarovoy in the book "Military culture of the Cossacks: symbolic space and ritual" wrote that the bedroom of the newlyweds is a border territory between our world and the other world.

The same matchmaker acted as the guardian of this frontier. The woman was dressed up in a fur-turned-out sheepskin coat. She stayed in it all night, guarding the door of the room with the newlyweds. It was believed that at night the bride and groom ritually die, and then are reborn. In connection with this morning, it was customary to bathe the young couple with prayers and conspiracies, like newborns.

The Cossacks' wedding night was called a podklet. Often the bedroom for the newlyweds was equipped not in the room, but in the coldest room of the house, and sometimes even in the outbuildings. It could be a canopy, a bathhouse, a crate, a closet, a pantry, and even a barn or a sheepfold.

This was due to one important feature of traditional Cossack houses. Then it was decided to pour earth on the ceiling of residential premises, as thermal insulation. Despite the analogies with funerals, spending the first night "underground" was considered a bad omen. The absence of an embankment is an indispensable condition for a long future life together and the birth of numerous and viable offspring.

When the marriage bed was not arranged in the upper room, an improvised bed was usually used. To do this, they made a platform of boards, slightly raised above the floor. In some areas, they didn't think much of it and just spread sheepskins on the floor, and placed a bed on top. Numerous amulets were placed under the feather bed of the newlyweds. These were bags with charmed cereals and flour, money and even logs wrapped in diapers, helping to give birth to a child faster.

There were necessarily juniper twigs nearby, driving away evil forces from the newlyweds on an important night. Some villages had their own special signs. There they could bring bricks to the bedroom so that the young family could get a new house faster, a yoke symbolizing a strong household.

The observance of traditions at the Cossack wedding was monitored by a friend chosen from the groom's friends. This guy walked around with a ceremonial painted staff and served as an administrator. Usually, at the same time, the friend joked and mischievous, entertaining the newlyweds and guests. He was assisted by a matchmaker, who could be recognized by a large paper flower on his head.

A friend and a matchmaker took the bride and groom to the marriage bed, while relatives and friends were feasting at the table. The matchmaker took off the bride's dress, showing the groom that she was in new and clean underwear. At this time , a friend fell on the bed right in his clothes and declared: "The bed is cold, we need to warm it up!". Then the bride took off the groom's boots and the couple finally laid down on the bed. The matchmaker and the friend carefully covered them with a blanket and left them alone.

Although there were exceptions. In some regions, at the end of the 19th century, a friend stayed with the newlyweds all night. He did not return to the table, but hid under the bed and watched their actions from there. By the way, in the village of Borozdinskaya, the bride and groom were not invited to the table at all. As soon as the guests sat down to celebrate, the boyfriend and the matchmaker took the young to the bedroom.

Probably, that's why the couple did not immediately start intimacy, but refreshed themselves a little. The wedding meal consisted of the simplest food: bread, baked chicken, kvass. These viands symbolized wealth and fertility.

In different Cossack districts, the attitude to the virginity of the bride differed. In the Siberian army, the chastity of the bride was not given any importance. Representatives of the Altai Cossacks were also loyal to this moment. And the Don and Terek Cossacks, living next to Muslims, everything was much stricter. The bride was supposed to be innocent, or at least pretend to be.

Cases when the holiday was spoiled by a scandal because of a "spoiled" bride were rare. Most often, before the wedding night, the bride received special instructions from experienced women and imitated the deprivation of virginity. Often a friend became an assistant in this case. He extracted the blood of a pigeon or a rooster. They stained the bride's nightgown with it and no one had any immodest questions.

In general, quite free morals reigned among the Cossacks. There was a time when legalized polygamy and polyandry even reigned in the villages. Cossack "Swedish families" were not approved by the church, but traditions were often stronger than religion.