A Russian Wedding.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 27 November 1914, Page 3

A Russian Wedding.

. L. A Russian wedding is described by a traveller who was one of the invited guests. It was to take place at 8 p.m., but the bride, of course, was late. Instead of arriving at eight o'clock, it was nearly nine before she made her appearance. She was preceded Dy her nephew, a little boy five years old, holding an image of "Our Lord." The child gave this to the priest, and then the service began. i Neither organ nor any musical inI strument is allowed in the Russian Church, so the choir, consisting of five men, chanted. The priest alternately reading and the choir chanting went on for about half an hour. The priest then addressed several words to the bride and bridegroom. Two gentlemen, "garcons d'honneur," or groomsmen, stepped forward and were each given a crown, whicli they were to hold over the bride and bridegroom's head until the end of the service. The priest then put a wedding ring on the third finger of the right hand of each, and the chanting went on as before. Then, with the priest leading, they walked three times round the reading-desk in the centre of the church. Until this was done they were not married. The. now married couple were next led to kiss the steps leading to the Holy of Holies, within which a woman is never allowed to enter. Their friends ' crowded round to congratulate,, them. Meanwhile the bride's sister and brother-in-law made their escape and went to await the bride and bridegroom at the house, and give them bread and salt as a symbol of hospitality. .There . was a reception after the wedding, and the bride cut up her veil and gave it, together with a piece of orange-blossom, to those of the guests who wished for a piece of it. Two or three days after, all the guests, myself among the number, i received handsome satin bags of sweets tied up with orange-blos-.soms and richly embroidered in gold, and'with the initials, in gold, of the bride on one side and those of the bridegroom on the other.