The Ukrainian Hustka

     All the different cultures of the world have their own unique traditions to uphold. Some of these traditions could be as much as several centuries old, even. In the Ukrainian culture, one specific wedding tradition is believed to be even older. The crowing of the 'Hustka', it's called. Being a nice way to end the night, it occurs at the end of most Ukrainian weddings. It involves almost every guest who is of importance to the bride and groom, let it be a friend or relative, making it that much more enjoyable to carry out.

     The ceremony starts with the bride's maids, the druzhkas, who take off the bride's wedding veil. After that, the bride sits on the groom's lap and tries to fight off the groom's mother as she attempts to put another headcraft, the Hustka, a beautifully handcrafted lace scarf, onto the bride's head. The Hustka symbolizes the bride's  transformation from a child into a grown woman. Once the headcraft is on, the bride dances with the groom, just a nice, slow dance. Afterwards, the groom leaves and the bride is surrounded by a circle of her closest single female friends in which she takes turns dancing with each once and places the veil she shed earlier onto each one's head. This symbolizes the bride's wishes for her friends to find love and get married. At the very end of the ceremony, all the guests sing a song called the Mnohaya Lita. 

     In the end, the crowning of the 'Hustka' is quite the entertaining ceremony, and is also historic and traditional all the same. It tells us so much about what symbolizes what in the Ukrainian culture and shows us how much a simple activity could mean.

By Julia Dankov