Wedding Customs Around the World - Poland
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Poland has several old traditions involving weddings. Here are some of the more well-known ones, and their meanings.
The eve before the wedding, the bride's mother and her female relatives undo her single braid, traditionally worn by unmarried Polish girls, and plait it into two braids while singing songs. The braids symbolize the new step that the bride-to-be is taking into marriage. After the wedding ceremony her bridesmaids undo them to symbolize her bridal passage.
For village weddings, friends of the bride weave a crown of rosemary leaves for her, symbolising remembrance.
The bride and groom are welcomed at the reception place by their parents with bread, salt and wine. The bread symbolizes the hope that the bride and groom will never go hungry. The salt is a reminder that they will have to overcome bitterness and problems in life, and the wine symbolizes the desire that the couple will never go thirsty and enjoy the sweetness of life.
The “Oczepiny Ceremony” or unveiling, symbolises a rite of passage from single woman to married woman. The single women will circle the bride and help remove her wedding veil. A married woman, usually her mother, will then place a cap on her head. The veil is then either thrown to one of the single women or given to the maid of honour.
During the reception it is considered lucky if the bride can drink from her glass of wine without spilling a drop.
The custom of pinning money to the bride's wedding dress has been practised in Poland for hundreds of years, and was done to give new couples money to set up house together. Today it is known as the "money dance" and guests pin money to the bride's gown to buy a dance from her. Sometimes the maid of honour wears an apron and collects the money given by the guest to dance with the bride. Once the guests have danced with the bride, they form a tight circle around her, and the groom tries to break through the wall of arms while the guests try to keep him out. In the end he wins and whisks his new wife away with the money collected used to spend on their honeymoon.
Wedding rings are worn on the right hand in Poland.