Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1874 — Weddings in Russia. [ARTICLE]

Weddings in Russia.

It is an immemorial custom for the serfs on the estate of the bride’s parents to subscribe and give her a wedding present. In former days this invariably consisted of a complete set of kitchen utensils, but now, we understand, it has changed with the limes, and more frequently takes the shape of a dressingcase or a set of silver fish knives and forks. The wedding peal must be rung by bachelors 'who have never been wounded in their affections, or the marriage will not be a happy one, and none of the ringers should be b.ald, or have a mole on any part of the face. If tho families are wealthy, the bell-ropes are generally covered with gold-leaf, and the ringers wear white sheep-skin gloves. The Russians are a somewhat superstitious people, so that, if three white blackbirds m succession fly across the path of the wedding party on their way to church, they turn back, and the ceremony is postponed. At breakfast, when the bride cuts the cake, she has her eyes bound with a snowwhite fillet, and the first unmarried lady to whom she offers a slice must immediately leave the table, and spend the rest of the day in seclusion, if she desires to dream of her future husband within a reasonable period. , A shower of old furs is thrown after the vehicle in which the bride and bridegroom take their departure, and six young men and women, all under twenty-one, join hands, and follow the drosky at a rapid pace until it reaches the parish boundary, when, they halt, sing an epithalamium, and return to their homes in the evening. No speeches are made at the wedding breakfast, but when the health of the newly-married couple has been proposed by the oldest person present—not being a foreigner, a proctor, or a widower—the whole party rise, grasping in their hands goblets filled to the brim with wine or mead, and sally forth in sleighs to the Neva, where, amidst loud cries of joy and the ringing of little silver bells, they pour the contents of their glasses into its flow : ing waters. Only three other toasts are given, “Russia in Europe,” “ Russia in Asia,” and “ Russia in America.” —A Kansas couple paid their marriage fee in buUer. They belonged to the creme de lit creme. % ’