Rituals and customs of the first wedding night in Rus' (7 photos). Wedding night traditions in different countries

Modern newlyweds for the most part do not pay great attention spending the first night as spouses, because intimacy, as a rule, takes place long before the wedding, and some couples even live together for more than one year before painting. However, in a number modern countries they are very scrupulous about this moment, observing the traditions of the wedding night that have developed over decades.

Portal for newlyweds Wedding.ws will try to tell you about the most interesting and unusual traditions wedding night that currently exist in different countries. You will find out what people of a different religion and worldview do on their wedding night, and, who knows, you may take something into account.

The first wedding night in Rus'

The existing rites of the first intercourse in Rus' differed significantly from the traditions of Europe, Africa or India of those times. And the main difference is that in Rus' the first man of the bride should have been her husband. For comparison, in the same Europe, the right of the first night was awarded to an outsider. It could be big man or even a random passerby.

First wedding night ancient Rus' took place at the time of the wedding. And since our rare were very pious, but the date of the holiday was chosen most carefully. After all, in posts and church holidays it was forbidden to have an intimate relationship, so weddings were never scheduled on these days.

Preparing for the first night of the young:

If the wedding night in Rus' was successful, then after it the festivities continued!

The guests sang songs and ditties, and the bride was dressed in the clothes of a married woman.

First wedding night in Islam

Despite the past decades, Muslims strictly follow the established rules regarding the first night of marriage. Many of them take their roots from ancient times.

And here are some of the customs:

Until now, in many countries it is customary to show the groom's relatives a sheet with the blood of the bride after the first sex of the spouses;
The first intercourse can take place only after the girl has transferred all her dowry to the house of her new husband;
A man should be gentle with his wife, obscene proposals are unacceptable. The girl, in turn, is forbidden to push her husband away, otherwise this can lead to disastrous consequences;
If there is a Koran in the room where the wedding night will take place, then it must be taken out of the room or at least wrapped in cloth.

The wedding night has a special place in Islam. And in a number of countries there are special rituals regarding the first intima. For example, the first wedding night in India occurs only three days after the wedding. It is also customary to place a traditional udumbara stick, which symbolizes the fertility of the bride.

Customs of the first night in different countries

It would seem that there could be something unusual in the first place. marriage night. However, traditions and customs sometimes not only surprise, but also shock. And we want to talk about some of them.

The first wedding night for Armenians takes place exclusively in the man's house. At the same time, the groom's relatives leave their home for a while. After intercourse, the husband quietly leaves in the morning, and if the girl’s innocence was confirmed during the joint night, in the evening he visits the house of the chosen one’s parents with gifts (red apples, wine, cognac, chicken). And the bride herself receives silver coins with apples as a gift.

During the first wedding night among the Kyrgyz, one can often see “witnesses” who eavesdropped under the doors at the bedroom of the newlyweds, and then reported to the guests about the process.

During the wedding night of the ancient Jews, the newly-made spouse did not remove the covers from her face. And the groom himself was freed from the evening prayer, so as not to cool the ardor of love.

Jews have a special relationship with honeymooning. So, young people, neither in past tenses, nor in the present period, go to Honeymoon and spend this period at home. Throughout the week, friends of the newlyweds and relatives invite the couple to dinner, wrapping the newlyweds in care.

Controversial opinions circulate about how the first wedding night of the gypsies goes. For example, according to one version, a girl is deprived of innocence by a newly-made spouse, who takes out a sheet with evidence of the purity of the bride to relatives. According to another version, the bride was deprived of her virginity by the groom's relatives, after wrapping a sheet or towel around her finger. Moreover, the groom is allowed to watch, but it is forbidden to participate in the process.

The first wedding night in different countries is a kind of history of every nation, where established traditions and rituals are observed. And the site team will be happy to find out what customs of the first night your people or specifically your family adheres to.

In some cultures, the customs associated with the wedding night involved more than just the bride and groom. Here are some of the most embarrassing, weird, and hilarious wedding night traditions.

French soup served in the toilet

This tradition arose at a time when people defecated their natural needs in chamber pots. The relatives of the bride and groom filled the chamber pot with the remnants of alcohol and food with holiday table, after which they gave it to the newlyweds as "fuel" for their wedding night. They did not leave the bedroom until the bride and groom had completely drunk the contents of the pot.

This tradition exists to this day, however, in a somewhat improved form. Today, instead of a pot, relatives of the newlyweds use a bowl in the form of a toilet, which is filled with chocolate fondue and champagne.

In the 18th century in royal families they practiced a ritual according to which, on their wedding night, a group of gloomy priests, court ladies and gentlemen gathered at the bedside of the newlyweds.

Scottish cheese joke
According to the book " wedding customs world: from henna to honeymoon”, in Scotland there was once a custom to take a piece of cheese with you to bed for good luck. The newlyweds had to put about 500 grams of Limburg cheese between a pair of towels and crush it.

Indian bedspreads
In India, on the wedding night, the bride hides under the covers on the bed, which is surrounded by members of her family. The groom enters the room with his relatives and tries to determine which side the bride lies with her head. At this time, her family members strive to confuse him with false clues and mocking jokes. If the groom guesses exactly which side his bride's head is on, they will live on equal terms in marriage, if not, then he is doomed to serve (fall at her feet) to her for the rest of his life.

Chinese tradition "Nao Dongfang"
The Chinese tradition of "Nao Dongfang", which originated during the Han Dynasty, is still practiced today. It promotes rapprochement between the bride and groom through a series of dirty jokes and games played by the relatives of the newlyweds. In one of these games, a friend or family member holds an apple tied to a string. The newlyweds must try to bite him, which eventually leads to a kiss. Very often, a friend or family member puts the apple away at the very last moment.

Comic serenades under the windows of the newlyweds
Previously, in France, the townspeople, in order to shame adulterous marriages and other frowned upon unions, made a fuss under the windows of the newlyweds on their wedding night. This tradition was subsequently adopted by the inhabitants of the United States and Canada during the French colonization.

Today, relatives of newlyweds gather outside their home and make noise by banging pots and pans and singing songs loudly, mostly as a joke.

Korean tradition using fish
In Wedding Bells and Chimney Sweeps, Bruce Montague describes Korean tradition, according to which the groom's friends take off his socks, tie his legs and beat his feet with fish, usually dried corvina, which sometimes can be up to 90 centimeters long.

During this action, the groom is interrogated. If his answers are unsatisfactory, the beating by the fish becomes more severe. According to some sources, this acts on the groom like Viagra. This is done so that he does not blunder in bed on their wedding night.

Let's start with our Slavic roots. First of all, let's turn to premarital relationships. They were not just allowed in some villages (and up to the beginning of the 20th century), moreover, there was even a so-called “trial marriage” there: that is, the bride moved to the groom, and the wedding was celebrated together with the wedding only after the birth of their first child. The church struggled with this, but without much success, especially since some priests from the hinterland themselves sinned with this. And a similar custom arose for a very simple reason: the purpose of marriage is the birth of offspring, and it would be nice to check the “capacity” of the newlywed in advance.

Many amusing rituals accompanied the traditional wedding night. For example:

At the wedding, each of the invited men had to “squeeze” the bride to him, imitating sexual intercourse, so that she knew what to prepare for.
The young woman was often taken off her shoes and undressed (albeit only to the shirt) by her father, older brother or boyfriend, that is, a witness from the groom's side.
Although the spouses were locked in separate room, but all the relatives were sure to eavesdrop, and sometimes even peeped through the keyhole: didn’t the young people fall asleep, instead of “working” on the marriage bed? However, they weren’t allowed to sleep: they knocked on the door, asking if “the most important thing” had happened, they ran around the house all night shouting, obscene songs and ditties, urging them to “knead the bed” more actively.

It is clear that in such a situation, an inexperienced groom could blunder. And when in the morning he could not show evidence that he had deprived his partner of virginity (sheets stained with the blood of his wife deprived of her virginity), he was given two more attempts. For those suitors who were never honored with a marital act, they found a temporary replacement - either an older relative, or a godfather, or even the most “tested” and reliable of wedding guests or even .. a wedding musician - this custom still exists in remote Ukrainian villages.

In other villages, they acted even more simply: they put one of the brothers-in-law (the groom's older brothers) on the marriage bed to the young, so that in which case he would help the youngest "process" the bride. Such a disgrace happened long before the current "fall in morals", porn and group sex, and our ancestors did not see anything shameful or indecent here. All this is clearly incompatible with Christian morality, but Rus' has remained fundamentally pagan. At least, this is what the venerable scientists who compiled the Slavic Antiquities dictionary say, and these specialists cannot be accused of a lack of patriotism.

Customs of other peoples:

In some African tribes, there is a custom: on the wedding night, the groom knocks out the bride's two upper teeth. It becomes a kind of symbol of marriage. Toothless women are proud of their smiles, free - bashfully cover their mouths.
On Philippines in the first marriage there is a custom of abstinence. That is, at a wedding you can drink and walk with the guests without fear that a child pumped with alcohol from the blood of his parents will be born defective.
Some peoples Mexico, Peru And Brazil newlyweds abstain from sexual intercourse for several weeks - until the new moon. (For the same purpose - to help the body cope with intoxication before conception).
IN Samoa young people are obliged to spend the first night meeting in the circle of sleeping relatives. To love each other? Please! But just quietly. God forbid to wake someone up - they will beat the groom.
Newlyweds doing exciting business Macedonia. Their wedding night takes place in the struggle for the main wedding trophies - a hat and shoes. Whoever owns them will be the head of the family.
The most fun of all have fun in the tribe Bahutu that in Central Africa (Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda). On the wedding night, it is forbidden to have sex - instead, the newlyweds arrange a scuffle. The ritual beating ends only at dawn, but is repeated the next night, and so on for a whole week. Night fights between spouses last until both understand: they have no anger for the future against each other. Deaths are extremely rare, but brawls sometimes last a week. IN daytime the newlyweds go to sleep at their parents' houses.

Strictly speaking, wedding ceremony always and for everyone is considered the beginning of a sinless family life. Life together. The only exception are Nayars inhabiting part of the state of Kerala, in southern India. Their ceremony is practically no different from one of the types of an ordinary Hindu wedding. But three days later, the husband leaves his wife (during this time, the possibility is implied that the wife will be impregnated with his seed). He can walk wherever he pleases. She can have sex with anyone and kick her lover out of the house whenever she wants. Now there is nothing like it anywhere. According to scientists, such a custom dates back to the days of early matriarchy - it would still appeal to modern fans of unsystematic sexual relations. Only in Nayar, another lover is responsible for the upbringing and maintenance of all the children of the wife and herself, and “civilized” womanizers do not always have the habit of not only answering for strangers, but also for their own children.

Therefore, if you do not delve into hoary antiquity, when polygamy flourished among the Slavs, and in some places all the men of one village had general rights on all the local girls and more later times When, under the influence of Christianity, morals softened, there were customs very far from romanticism and chastity. It seems that you and I live in the most adapted for family happiness era.

There are whole legends about the traditions of the wedding night. They received much more attention than wedding celebration. After all, the moment of the first intimacy was long-awaited not only for the newlyweds themselves, but also for their relatives and guests ...

What traditions do the countries of the peoples of the world adhere to and how to make the first wedding night truly unforgettable?

Medieval traditions

The wedding traditions of the Middle Ages were a real "torture" for a newlywed couple. After all, it was not the groom who deprived his bride of her virginity, but the master whom she served! The feudal lord owned the so-called "right of the wedding night", and he used it with pleasure.

This tradition existed not only in Medieval Europe, but also in Africa, Central and South America, Eurasia.

The groom himself could deprive the bride of virginity only if he came from a rich and noble family. But the process of intercourse necessarily took place in front of the relatives, who were supposed to “control” the inexperienced spouse. They commented on his actions in every possible way, making various jokes and encouraging their ward.

Traditions of Ancient Rus'

Ancient Rus' is famous for its somewhat liberal traditions. After all, the ancient Russian bride did not have to be a virgin. Moreover, the newlyweds were allowed to live for some time in the so-called "trial" marriage. And only after the birth of offspring, the newly-made family could get married.

Caucasian traditions

Everyone associated the Caucasian bride with purity and purity. Therefore, the young couple certainly had to show the result of the wedding night in the form of a bloody sheet. If the sheet was clean, it was considered an insult to the groom. His bride was not only disgraced in the whole district, but also expelled - back to her family or even to the monastery. This tradition is still observed in the Caucasus and Eastern countries.

Slavic traditions

The Slavs treated the wedding celebration as a great fun. And the preparation for the wedding night began even during the celebration itself. For example, the boyars of the groom could squeeze the bride from all sides, imitating sexual intercourse. Thus, they warned what awaited her at night. And even during the most intimate moments of the wedding night, the newlyweds were not left alone. Relatives allowed themselves to peek through the keyhole, brazenly knocked on the door and asked candid questions trying to find out from the newlyweds the details of sexual intercourse. It is not surprising that in such an environment, the groom could not completely “relax” and present the necessary “evidence” on the sheet in the morning. So he was given two more attempts. And if nothing worked out for him, it means that the relatives had to look for a replacement for him from his own friends, an attorney or an older brother. Fortunately, this tradition has long ceased to exist.

Forbidden Traditions

In some countries, newlyweds were forbidden to make love on their wedding night. For example, in India, newlyweds cannot have sexual intercourse for three days, otherwise the guardian gods can get seriously angry and punish the young couple with childlessness.

In the Philippines, young people could drink and walk with all the guests, but on their wedding night it was contraindicated for them intimacy to avoid harmful offspring.

In one African tribe the newlyweds staged a serious fight among themselves. A family scuffle can last for seven nights in a row. In the morning, the couple returned to sleep with their parents. Having had enough of this tradition, the newlyweds finally had to realize that there was no more room for anger in their hearts, and then they began their family life with a calm soul and many bruises.

Modern traditions

Today it is hardly possible to meet a bride who did not give herself to her groom before the wedding. However, the first wedding night should be associated for every young couple not only with the calculation of donated money or sex for show. So now there is new tradition, which allows the newlyweds to retire and spend a truly unforgettable wedding night.

Many couples can afford to rent a honeymoon suite in a comfortable hotel. The cost of a room in a luxury hotel varies from 1000 to 1500 hryvnia. The apartments are equipped with the necessary furniture, bath accessories and even a safe for secure storage gift money. Moreover, the bed of the young is showered with rose petals, they are waiting for the burning taste of ice-cold champagne, their favorite music and silver candelabra with a bright flame of candles. All this promises to make your wedding night unforgettable.