Dancing Siblings

     Dancing is a massive part of any traditional wedding, am I right? There's the bride's dance with her father, then the bride's dance with the groom, and so on. Let's also not forget that most wedding guests spend a great deal of the wedding celebrations they attend dancing away with their friends and families. It's easy to see that dancing is a common activity amongst weddings all over the world.

     For the Cajun people of Southwest Louisiana, however, dancing is not just a fun pastime, it's much more than that. Dancing plays into a whole lot of some of Cajun's oldest wedding traditions. During most traditional Cajun weddings, the older unmarried siblings of the bride have to dance with a broom in front of everybody at the wedding, mocking their single status by doing so. Older unmarried siblings also have to participate in a tradition called the 'Hog's Trough Dance'. This tradition requires the siblings to dance in an empty hog's trough until it breaks and is believed to bring good luck to the bride and groom.

     So remember, a dance may be quite the simple and enjoyable pastime to some, whereas to others it may be an embarrassing, mocking activity. In the end, however, it's safe to say that dancing really does play, in one way or another, into every wedding.

By Julia Dankov

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

The Walk to the Wedding

     For most weddings, real action occurs during the actual ceremony. Not much happens before or after; wedding guests only gather and then leave. Not for Italian weddings, though. Weddings held in Venice have a special touch added to them, the walk of the bride and groom. It's customary for the bride and groom to walk to the chapel in which their wedding will be held together, with a great amount of the wedding guests following, of course. Sounds like nothing much, right? Think again. The walk puts a lot of pressure on the bride, for it proves to the people around her how successful she'd be as a housewife or mother. During the walk, the people place obstacles in front of the bride's path, such as brooms or other such household objects. The way the bride reacts to certain objects reflects on how she will live life with her new husband and family. For example, if she picks up a broom placed in front of her, it signifies that she'll keep her home clean in the future. Not all couples look forward to their wedding ceremony and only their wedding ceremony, some have other preceding events that prove themselves to be just as important.

By Julia Dankov

McQueen's Approach to Wedding Attire

     Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) was not only a man of great talent and interest, he was also a fantastic designer. From the beginning of his well applauded career, all the way back in the early 1990's, the man worked hard to have had the great honor of being able to claim titles such as 'British Designer of the Year' and 'CFDA's International Designer of the Year', and so on. Now I, Julia Dankov, had the great honor of being able to attend The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Alexander McQueen showcase in New York City. All the man's most celebrated pieces, whether they were dresses, suits, or accessories, stood on display. There were also, I couldn't help but notice, fair amounts of wedding styled pieces in the collection as well. 

     The first two pieces, an ivory silk organza and tulle dress and a cream resin antler headpiece, were both pieces in McQueen's 'Widows of Culloden' collection. The last piece, an 'Oyster' ivory silk organza, Georgette, and chiffon dress, was part of one of McQueen's earlier collections, 'Irere'. All three pieces are quite out of the ordinary for wedding styled attire, however McQueen's designs were quite often, and still are, deemed out of the ordinary. But not all wedding dresses or suits are required to be the same, right? They don't all have to be long, white, and sweet. They could, for those who agree with Alexander McQueen, just as well be a bit aggressive, dark, and romantic.

By Julia Dankov

Yelena and Nikita