Why did people in Rus' go to the bathhouse and sing ditties before their wedding night?

Since time immemorial, our Russian bathhouse had not only a domestic purpose. Various rituals were often performed in the bathhouse.

It’s hard to imagine, but a bathhouse was heated even for deceased ancestors. They did this before major church holidays and invited the souls of the dead to wash and take a steam bath.

It was in the bathhouse that hair and nails were cut, which were never thrown away anywhere (after all, sorcerers and sorcerers could use them for evil deeds). There was even a special ritual of burning hair and nails, which were collected in a specially sewn canvas bag.

After washing, you should not throw dirty water at your feet. There was such a sign that if you accidentally entered it you would definitely get sick...

In the old days, the bathhouse was a panacea for everything: the sick and infirm were brought here. The bathhouse helped to cope with physical pain, treated mental suffering, and supported in any endeavor. In the old days, not a single wedding could do without a special bath ceremony.

Wedding bath

The ritual of a wedding bath is special, every little thing had its own secret meaning and explanation. The bathhouse was heated and prepared for two days. On the first day they steamed and washed the bride, and on the second day the newlyweds went to the bathhouse together. Thus sealing the sacrament of the first night.

But even here the same rituals did not exist. Sometimes the husband and wife steamed together, and sometimes alone.

In order for the marriage to be strong and the relationship between the spouses to be full of passion, the unity of heavenly and earthly forces was required. Such unity was achieved by fire. To fire the stove, they used only wood that had been struck by lightning.

Beer or kvass was splashed on the stove; water was never used in a wedding bath for these purposes... It was believed that the aroma of bread directly affected childbearing and the newlyweds would have many children.

Listen to ditties

The famous publicist, Vladislav Vladimirovich Artemov, described the preparations for the first wedding night in the book “Slavic Encyclopedia”.

Almost all the funny songs, poems, toasts, spells and jokes heard at the wedding were supposed to help the newlyweds relax. A special role was played by frivolous ditties that put the bride in the right mood.

“The time had come to perform the bed ritual: amid songs and dances, with obviously immodest hints and jokes, the young people were escorted to a separate room or cage and left alone. It was believed that singing such songs is necessary for a happy marriage,” writes V.V. Artemov.

The groom's groomsman or one of his closest relatives usually remained at the door; he was supposed to protect the peace of the newlyweds.

It is interesting that newlyweds in some villages took boiled or fried chicken to bed with them. And sometimes the very fact of serving a poultry dish at the wedding table meant that it was time for the bride and groom to retire for their first wedding night. And to slow-witted people, as a rule, they also hinted: “Tetera flew to the table - the young woman wanted to sleep.”

As a rule, in the morning the newlywed was delicately asked about the sexual intercourse that had happened, using various allegories. They could, for example, ask: “How is your health?” And if the newly-made husband answered that he was in “good health,” then the young spouses were congratulated. Only after the fact of intimate intimacy was confirmed, the new family was considered complete.

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Bride washing

A visit to the bathhouse was the first test for the bride before starting married life. There is information that in some areas the bride was washed and bathed by relatives on the groom’s side. They examined her carefully and judged her health and physical strength. In those days, girls were expected to be strong and able to cope with difficult work.

In other areas, the bride went to the bathhouse with her bridesmaids and the wedding bathing ritual was completely different...

The girlfriends heated the bathhouse hot, tried not to break the remaining firebrands in the stove, it was believed that the husband would not beat his wife. Then the stove and bathhouse were cleaned, the walls were scraped white and decorated. Often, while heating the bathhouse, girlfriends wondered about their future husband and his relatives. Hot stones were dipped into cold water and by their hissing they learned about the temperament of the groom and his relatives.

After the wedding bath was ready, the solemn secret action could begin. The bride's brother was the first to go to the bathhouse, followed by her godmother or close friend. The bride walked wailing and saying goodbye to her girlhood.

In those days, it was believed that the solemn bath ritual would wash away the bride’s former, girlish life, one might say, bury her. In a new, married life, there should be no place for old habits. The wedding bath ceremony provided new ritual purity and protected against possible witchcraft.

Before entering the bathhouse, the bride bowed to four sides and said words of prayer. They carried her across the threshold in their arms, then her girlfriends unbraided the girl’s braid. The entire wedding ritual took place amid singing and lamentation - the bride said goodbye to her former life.

Transition to another life

All pre-wedding rituals were carried out in order to facilitate the girl’s transition to married life. Traditional wedding rites in Rus' had much in common with funeral rites; it is no coincidence that the bride was ordered to mourn her previous life in her parents' house, which was cheerful and carefree.

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Bathing in the bathhouse was also a pre-wedding ritual, symbolizing the transition to married life. In some ways it was reminiscent of the washing of the dead before moving on to the afterlife. The bathhouse was prepared for the bride by her closest friends and relatives, so that she would seem to be cleansed of the past.

Ancient bath love spells

Often the bridesmaids collected the bride's sweat into a small bottle. Then the bride mixed it into the groom’s food, it was believed that this was how she bewitched him to herself.

To cast a love spell on a loved one, they also used a simple broom - they pulled out a twig from it and hid it under the threshold of the house. When the betrothed crossed this threshold, they secretly took out a twig and ran to the bathhouse. They placed the branch high up - in the hottest place. Sweetheart believed that the longer the twig dried, the more the darling would yearn for his beloved.

The bathhouse is a special ritual for Russian people. The world is changing rapidly, some things are disappearing from our daily lives forever. But the bathhouse tradition and culture does not disappear. We love our bathhouse with all the breadth of our Russian soul; for us it is not just a washroom.

This is some kind of special place, here you can rest your soul and body. It’s easy to breathe here and smells delicious of fresh brooms, bread kvass and aromatic herbs. Our bathhouse gives us both physical and spiritual strength.

The peculiarity of the Russian bath is its brooms, the queen's stove, the mysterious bannik, traditional fortune telling and ancient bath rituals, which no other nation on Earth has.

Kiss the groom

The next stage of a traditional Russian wedding, designed to ignite passion in a girl, preparing her for bed pleasures with her young husband, was a festive feast. The guests actively contributed to the sexual emancipation of the young beauty, often shouting: “Bitter! Bitterly!"

Doctor of Philological Sciences, Yuri Vladimirovich Otkupshchikov, in his book “To the Origins of the Word. Stories about the science of etymology" wrote about the origin of this wedding exclamation. Contrary to many folk legends, the word “gorko” is etymologically related to the Old Russian verb “goriti” (to burn). That is, with their shouts, the guests call the newlyweds for hot, heated kisses, and do not at all ask them to “sweeten” their food.

Usually one of the guests, after drinking a glass of vodka and eating a pickled cucumber, loudly complains that the treat tastes bitter. Other participants in the wedding feast immediately understand the hint and begin to chant in unison: “Bitter! Bitterly!" This practically makes the newlyweds forget about their natural shyness and serves as a public prelude to future bed pleasures.

Since the newlyweds had a responsible and important event ahead of them, they were usually not served alcohol at their own wedding.

Rules for taking a traditional village bath

As a rule, in Russian villages the traditional bath day was Saturday. There was, and in some places is still practiced, a whole set of unwritten rules that must be followed. We will give some of them:

• It is not customary to drink alcoholic beverages in the village bathhouse. You should go for steaming on an empty stomach for ease and good acceptance of the steam by the body. Thirst is quenched with kvass, fruit drink, and clean water. A prerequisite is that you should never drink water prepared for washing, no matter how pure it is;
• When you arrive at the soap shop, you shouldn’t immediately head to the steam room. You need to sit in the dressing room, get in a good mood, let your body adapt to the upcoming thermal load;
• Then the rule was used: “they don’t sit in the steam room, but lie down.” And it is not without practical meaning. The temperature difference in the area of ​​​​the feet and the top of the head can reach 40 degrees Celsius, and sometimes even higher. This circumstance puts the body, especially a weakened and unprepared one, into a state of temperature shock and there can be no talk of any therapeutic or general health effect. The horizontal position of the body on the shelf determines the uniform distribution of thermal effects;
• In the village Russian bathhouse they were very picky when choosing a broom. First of all, you should never use spruce. It was with such a broom that the deceased was hovered, preparing him for the transition to another world. Secondly, when tying the brooms themselves, they did not use the lower branches of the tree crown and the upper ones, procuring raw materials from the middle part. The best time for such fishing was considered to be the period of the waxing moon. Allegedly, then the tree branch has the greatest healing power. If, after all, we remember about coniferous brooms, then it is obviously worth mentioning fir, which is indispensable for massage and rubbing in the prevention and treatment of joint ailments, and juniper - it is the champion in creating an indescribable fragrant atmosphere in a steam room;
• Rural baths did not accept soap. An alternative was lye based on ash from birch firewood, or they made do with scrubbing, an original procedure in which the steamed body was treated with a linden or alder board, the working edge of which was slightly “fluffed” by blows from a hard object. Body scrubbing perfectly removed the upper keratinized epithelium, opened and cleansed pores, and improved microcirculation of blood, both skin and muscles. In the old days, a washcloth was made from linden bast and its effect on the skin was similar to the scrubbing procedure. In the southern regions, instead of lye, clay and plants with juice of a certain consistency were used, such as soapwort or soap root;
• If a common bathhouse was built in villages, it was at a public expense and for the whole world. Such institutions were distinguished by their fundamentality and thoroughness. For example, only a furnace could reach a volume of 12 - 16 cubic meters. m. and the boiler built into it can hold about 4000 liters. water. The designs of such prototypes of public baths were distinguished by their amazing heat capacity. There are known cases when on the first day after heating they steamed in a bathhouse, on the second it was hot, on the third it was moderately warm for carding flax fiber;
• You don’t need to visit a bathhouse in the village alone, at least together. It’s more convenient to steam this way, and for safety reasons it’s much more acceptable. After visiting the bathhouse, you are supposed to sit for 20-30 minutes in silence, bringing your thoughts into order and your soul into peace. And after that, it’s not a sin to drink a glass of beer or a glass of homemade tincture made with birch buds or currant leaves.

Fortune telling and omens

There was a ban - not to beat a firebrand in the heater, so as not to provoke assault from your husband in the future. Kvass, honey, beer were poured onto the heater in the bathhouse, bread and hops were thrown. Listening to the sounds made after these actions, they wondered what the character of the future spouse would be.

To ensure that the bride was fertile, the bridesmaids hovered the newlywed with a birch broom, into which branches of fruit trees and berry bushes were woven. She responded by hovering over her friends. There was a sign: whichever girl the bride whips first, she will be the first to get married.

Where to spend

Many people are interested not so much in the question: “How to hold a bachelorette party?”, but rather in the question: “Where to hold a bachelorette party?” By and large, you can organize a party for girls anywhere you want. But it’s better to start from the goals that you are pursuing - just to have a spiritual get-together with the girls, or to have a good time on the eve of your own wedding.

Another little piece of advice: don’t go against yourself on this day. If you like to be at home, this atmosphere is close to you, it is not at all necessary to go to the club all night.

So, below are several options for celebrating a bachelorette party.

Bachelorette party at home

This option is especially beneficial for girls who have their own home, where no one else will disturb their presence. Why look for other options if organizing a bachelorette party is not difficult?

And in general, gatherings at friends’ houses before the wedding are a tradition, a classic. After all, how nice it is to sit at home in the evening, drink light wine (or something stronger), and remember the old days. If you are worried that your girlfriends will start to get bored, prepare some kind of theme for your evening.

It could be a pajama party, for example, oriental or Japanese. Treats, music, and paraphernalia are selected in accordance with the theme. You can download an interesting movie, look at old photographs. And in general, you can do whatever your heart desires at home.

This is the main advantage of a bachelorette party at home.

Party in a restaurant or nightclub

Go to a bar or nightclub. Of course, if you choose this option, be prepared for the costs, because you will have to pay for everything. Besides, forget about intimate conversations at such a bachelorette party.

Instead, you can sing, dance, and even watch a striptease... However, our advice to you: it is better not to film such “piquant” moments, otherwise your future spouse may receive rather verbose incriminating evidence against you.

Go to a restaurant. If you don’t have money problems and you can afford to organize an invitation to a bachelorette party in a restaurant, go for it.

This version of the holiday is definitely successful and will not fail.

Rather, such an event will resemble a social event: girls will come in evening dresses, drink champagne, eat the most exquisite dishes, enjoy quiet live music and pleasant conversation.

Other options for a bachelorette party

• How to have a bachelorette party in a sauna. A great place to have a fun (and useful) time. In addition, by going to the sauna before the wedding, you will observe the ancient Slavic tradition, according to which the bride must take a steam bath with her bridesmaids before the wedding. However, in the sauna you can not only take a steam bath, but also have quite a lot of fun. How? Prepare some interesting competitions for your unmarried friends. For example, take with you several jars of yogurt and the same amount of bananas. Whoever is the first of her friends to empty the jar by eating yogurt with a banana will become the first bride after her friend.

• Aquapark. How to have a bachelorette party and have a fun one? Go to a water park! This is a great opportunity to plunge into the world of childhood, fun and joy. You and your friends will get a lot of fun and unforgettable impressions before the wedding.
• Get out into nature. It would be especially good to organize such a bachelorette party before the wedding in the warm season. You can go to the country house, or just to the river bank, make a fire with your friends, fry meat and potatoes. By the way, such a bachelorette party can be completely combined with a bachelor party - you must admit that girls may need male help in nature.

Deciding on a style

You can organize a bachelorette party before the wedding, regardless of whether it will take place at home or somewhere else, in different styles. Just show your imagination and choose what is closest to you and your friends.

For example, you can have fun at a retro gangster party. It will be especially interesting and fun if you manage to get a vintage car to drive around the city with your friends, dressed in chic dresses, boas, and pearls.

No party would be complete without champagne and long cigarette holders - these are the main signs of Chicago in the 20s. You can hold such a party at home, in a jazz club, or a music cafe. To complete the style, you can order an on-site casino and roulette.

By the way, an invitation to a bachelorette party for each guest can also be issued in this style.

Other interesting ideas include American cinema, a vampire party, and incendiary disco. By the way, a bachelorette party in disco style is quite popular today.

You can organize it on a rented yacht, after a boat trip go bowling and at the end of the evening visit a disco in the style of the 80s. We are sure that everyone will like this holiday.

Nuances to consider

So, to make sure your pre-wedding party is fun, follow these tips:

• Choose the right day for your bachelorette party. If you are planning to drink alcohol at a bachelorette party, and the event program is too busy, it is better not to organize a bachelorette party before the wedding itself. Take a walk and have fun beforehand so that you have time to “step away” and regain your strength.
• Determine the dress code and inform all guests about it. Choose outfits taking into account the theme of the bachelorette party (if there is one, of course). For example, all the girl friends can go to a nightclub wearing funny T-shirts with appropriate inscriptions.
• Don't disturb the bachelor party. Often, guests of a bachelorette party, especially after drinking a little and “warming up” themselves with alcohol, decide to unexpectedly show up at the groom’s party. This should not be done, because boys may not appreciate such a “surprise”, and this may provoke a conflict before the wedding.

What to play at a bachelorette party

To make sure the bachelorette party is fun and the girls don’t get bored, write the text of the script on a separate piece of paper. This text should also include interesting and funny competitions for girlfriends. So, here are a few such options.

Competition "Kiss"

“Can you kiss?” Prepare a poster with a sexy man, lipstick and a blindfold for this competition. You probably already guessed what the essence of this game is.

The poster is placed on the table or hung on the wall (whichever is more convenient), the contestants paint their lips, and, blindfolded, take turns trying to kiss an imaginary man.

Victory goes to the one whose kiss will be closest to the handsome man’s lips.

Competition "Case"

“Take a guess.” The girls each take a pencil and a piece of paper (the bride does not take anything). Each one tries to describe on paper a funny or interesting incident from her life, literally in a few words. After this, the bride must, after reading the text, determine which of her friends wrote it.

Competition "Truth"

“Tell only the truth!” If you are confident that this game is suitable for everyone, be sure to play it. You can play at home, outdoors and even in a sauna. First, compose the text on separate pieces of paper - questions of an intimate nature. If a girl does not answer a question, she must complete some funny or tricky task.

The text of the assignments should also be written on separate pieces of paper. You'll see, your friends will like the game!

Source: https://findprince.ru/tradicii/obryady/devichnik-kak-provesti/

Broom and soap from the groom's house

When washing the bride, she had to use a broom brought from the groom's house or soap given by him. Or the bathhouse was heated with wood taken from the groom's house. The room was thoroughly washed beforehand. Water had to be brought from three different sources, including wells. It is important that they are all clean.

The stones were taken from three fields, and the logs and branches with which the bathhouse was decorated from the inside were taken from three birch trees. All these actions were reflected in the songs and ditties sung by the bridesmaids. They also prepared small birch twigs, which were called “vicky”. Scraps of fabric and ribbons were tied to them, hung in the bathhouse and placed on the sides of the path leading to the bathhouse.

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Organizational essence of the issue and calculation of finance spent

Most visitors to the wedding portal Svadbaholik.ru will confirm that the organizational issue that is associated with a sauna or bathhouse must be resolved at least a week, or even a week and a half, before visiting this establishment. As for the money side of the issue, everything seems to be not so scary in terms of the numbers in the account. Just remember that SPA treatments may cost you a little more than everything else. But on such a bright and festive day, would it be a pity to please yourself and your dearest people in life? I think no.

In the end, I would like to add that if you do not want to spend your second day as standard on some beach and in a park with barbecue, then the option with a Russian folk bath or sauna is simply created for you.

Sweat as a means of conspiracy

A healer was present in the bathhouse, who collected the sweat that formed on the body of the young woman in order to then mix it into the groom’s drink. It was a spell for love. When the sweat was mixed with the drink, a special spell was read. Sometimes friends did this instead of a healer.

When the bride left the bathhouse, she thanked her spirit. She was accompanied by girls who, using various household items, made noise, thereby driving away evil spirits.

One girl cleared the way for the bride with a broom, and the other lifted up the girl’s headdress, which she received from the newlywed. At the same time, the bride was supposed to be sad, and all the girls and married women accompanying her were supposed to have fun.

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Giver of life

In the Russian village, the bathhouse was the cleanest place from a sanitary point of view. This was especially true for black-heated rooms. The phytoncides contained in birch tar suppressed pathogenic microflora so much that the sterility of the then steam room could be compared to the operating room in some current district hospital.

For three, and sometimes even seven days, the village bathhouse served as a kind of separate, self-sufficient room in which a woman in labor and her baby were kept. A great connoisseur of Russian antiquity and Slavic mythology, S.V. Maksimov wrote: “Everyone is firmly convinced that the bannik loves it when postpartum women come to live with him until the third day after giving birth, and even more so for a week.” Only after this period of time had passed, the newborn was solemnly brought into the house and the father could see his child for the first time.

Before the onset of childbirth, the bathhouse was properly heated, and pine, spruce or aspen firewood was never used as fuel. Preference was given to oak, birch and maple. The maternity tree could not be cut down for firewood. They collected only dead wood, dead wood, and wood washed up by floods or, ideally, damaged by lightning.

The floor in the bathhouse was densely covered with straw; rye and oat straw were especially valued in this matter. When the midwife arrived at the bathhouse, she scattered small stones with the sentence: “A stone and the devil’s forehead,” figuratively expelling evil spirits from the room. During childbirth, the room was locked from the inside, and the woman in labor asked the bannik to help her give birth easily.

A word from Experienced! Knowledgeable people say that after the birth of a child, the village bathhouse had to “rest.” That is, it should have been used at least 12 times for its intended purpose and only after that taken by the next woman in labor.

The custom of giving birth in a bathhouse should not be attributed exclusively to Slavic culture; traditions of this nature are strong among most Indo-European peoples.

Modern bachelorette party in the sauna

Today, friends do not want to be discouraged and have the right to do so. The sauna is a great place for a spa party with benefits before the wedding. It’s good to cleanse the pores, relax, transform and look 100% at the wedding. Should you invite an experienced massage therapist? Why not? After the main procedures, you can talk, remember pleasant moments, and, of course, enjoy wine and snacks right there - in the sauna. Competitions and ideas in the form of giveaways will also come in handy.

Russian bachelorette party in the sauna

Do you want to really surprise the bride? Then gather your whole group of friends in a real steam room . Wear long shirts or shirts, decorate the room with candles and bouquets of field herbs - create an atmosphere that will immerse you in the past. To get even closer to the bachelorette party theme, make wreaths of fresh flowers. In such an environment, you can steam with brooms, chat about your own things, and have a tasty snack with pre-prepared snacks. Most importantly, at the end, do not forget about the ancient Slavic tradition: at the end of the evening, friends braid the young bride’s hair as a symbol of girlhood. Such a holiday will definitely be remembered for a lifetime.

Photo of a bachelorette party in a sauna

Things to do?

Of course, according to the theme of the event, fortune telling will be the best entertainment. Girls have always loved to look into the future and believed in various hoaxes associated with ritual divination. Why not experiment? Here are examples of the most popular fortune telling:

1. Fortune telling on a wedding ring . Do you want to know who you are having: a boy or a girl? Then take a wedding ring, tie it to a thread, fill a glass with water and hold this simple design over it. According to legend, if the ring hits the glass an even number of times, there will be a girl, and an odd number, a boy.
2. Fortune telling on a book. The simplest and, in our case, fun time. Take any book (more fun - a romance novel or a women's magazine), ask a question and randomly open the first page you come across. Here's your answer. As a rule, you can read until your stomach hurts from laughter, but do not forget that this is still fortune-telling, read more carefully and remember the predictions - in case they come true.
3. Fortune telling by candle . To find out what the family will be like, the bride takes a candle, lights it and looks at the flame: if it is even and calm, the spouses will have a quiet and peaceful life, if it is bright and high, a stormy and interesting life will await them.
4. Fortune telling on wax . You need to take a container of water and a lit candle. As the flame melts the wax, pour it into the water; the drops will form figures, the outlines of which will become an omen for the near future. Imagine well, and you will definitely dream of a happy and long life together.

Photo fortune telling for a bachelorette party

Benefits of a bachelorette party

Having a spa treatment before the wedding and having fun at the same time is a good idea. The main thing is to create an interesting scenario that will become a real gift for the bride before the wedding from her best friends, whom, of course, should not be forgotten in the future. Today you can come up with a lot of entertainment to please the bride. You can arrange an unforgettable evening for her and support her, wish her the best and brightest in her family life. And of course, so that I don’t forget my friends, whose help is sometimes simply necessary.

Ideas for a bachelorette party today can be very different. The main thing is to show imagination and come up with a stunning scenario, interesting competitions, the idea of ​​which will leave good impressions before the wedding, will delight the bride and leave the most vivid impressions of the young, and so far unencumbered girlhood years.

How to spend a bachelorette party at home with benefit and fun for everyone.