First of all I want to mention that even though for many women, in some countries marriage has greatly devalued and they do not seek anymore to marry or keep marriage traditions, in Ukraine lots of ladies still take it seriously and make it one of the top priorities in their lives.



Since marriage for Ukrainian ladies is one of the biggest and most outstanding events of their lives, they also tend to keep both more contemporary, religious and historical Ukrainian marriage traditions. Now Ukraine official marriage is effective only in State Registry offices and no notary or church priest has the legal power to register the marriage.

Such a procedure has been developed during the Soviet Times together with certain new traditions and rules. However, nowadays most people prefer not to keep Soviet traditions, but rather return to national and religious ones.

Therefore, when getting married in Ukraine you will not have any choice as to where you will register your marriage, but you will certainly have an option on what traditions to keep and what kind of celebration to make. Now besides certain ceremonies at the State Registry Office you may also have an option of going through church marriage ceremony or celebrating the event in more secular way. Alternatively, you can combine and keep various religious and folk Ukrainian marriage traditions.

As a rule, certain Ukrainian marriage traditions are kept even during the official ceremony in the State Registry Office. Besides exchanging rings and drinking champagne, the newlywed couple may be presented with round loaf of white bread and salt. They take a bit of bread dip it in the salt eat it and than crush the loaf on the floor. The more pieces it crushes to, the better. This tradition is the symbol of happy married life.

On their way out the couple may also be presented with the nicely decorated towel. They have to step on it. The one who steps on the towel first will be the head of the house.

As to the secular marriage celebration, there is a tradition to invite many guests and to set up a big table loaded with food and drinks. As a rule, Ukrainian weddings are loud and crowded. People come there to have much fun. One of the most common wedding traditions is stealing the bride or her shoe. The bridegroom and his best man have to pay the bride a price or ransom to return his treasure. Sometimes the price is paid in money; it also can be paid by accomplishing various funny tasks or drinking champagne or vodka from the bride's shoe.

These are only few and most common Ukrainian marriage traditions. Some people in this country take keeping traditions very seriously and if you want to marry a Ukrainian lady, you have to be prepared to honour your future relatives by joining them in keeping these traditions as well.