Първата брачна нощ в славянския сватбен обред
The Wedding Night in Slavic Wedding Rites

Summary/Abstract: The ‘‘magic of the beginning” has a particular importance in the wedding night, one of the most important wedding rites, that is why most of the ritual actions have providential and prognostic purposes. They predict the future of the new family, guarantee its welfare, the birth and the health of the children. A great number of the ritual actions and texts have an erotic character linked, to the general “fecundity symbolics” of wedding. The rite has kept some archaic elements, reflecting more ancient forms of wedding and family-kinship relations. The article examines different groups of actions: preparatory (arrangement of the room and the marriage-bed, introduction of the bride and groom, the act of taking of the shoes and the dresses of the new weds, putting to bed); actions occurring at the time of the first marital intercourse (ritual behaviour of the bride and groom and the wedding guests, guarding of the bedroom, surveillance of the newly weds), terminal (awakening of the bride and groom, verification of the results of the marital intercourse, purification actions).

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