Весільний обряд на Потур’ї в контексті традиційної культури західної Волині
Wedding rite in Poturya within the context of the traditional culture of Western Volyn

Summary/Abstract: Since the dawn of time, Volyn has attracted attention of many researchers. The most famous among them are Z. Dolenha-Khodakovskyi, O. Kolberh, M. Kostomarov, Lesia Ukrainka, K. Kvitka, F. Kolessa, K Moshynskyi. The territory under research covers the Poturya basin, and more precisely the coast of an upper, middle and lower courses of the river Turiia, which is the right inflow of the Upper Prypyat. The length of the river is 184 kilometres, so that it flows through eight administrative districts of Volyn region. Wedding rite – a description of the ritual action along with the wedding songs – comprises the vast majority of expeditionary material collected by the author and other researchers (about 700 records) and music samples featured in the printed editions of lyrics. Describing peculiarities of the wedding rite in Ukraine, famous Ukrainian folklorist A. Ivanytskyi distinguishes two main action parts: festive and lyrical [8, 193-204]. These peculiarities are also typical of the wedding rite in Poturya. The festive part comprises the ritual elements that deal with the baking of korovai (round loaf), meeting of wedding couple in front of the parents’ house, peredyrky (playful quarrels) at the table, various dances and humorous actions at the final stage of the wedding. The main characters here are korovainytsi (hostesses), svashky (matchmakers) and druzhky (bridesmaids), newlyweds’ parents, svat (senior matchmaker), fellow borsholder and chorunzhyi (cornet). The lyrical part focuses on the bride, whose life will change dramatically after the wedding. Hence, the most emphatic parts of the ritual are those concerned with such developments: "vinky" (bachelorette party), taking hair out of braids, reading so-called "korona", making farewells with parents.

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