Ukraine: A Hutsul Wedding, Part I

This is part one of two short (8-10 min) pieces I have edited of footage I took at a wedding in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine in August 2004. The wedding was that of a cousin of a friend, Anna. Much of Anna's heritage is Hutsul. Hutsuls and their descedents have lived in their part of the Carpathians for some 500-600 years. The sign at the entrance to Anna's home village of Jabloniv, 15 km from the town of Kolomyja in the state of Ivano-Frankivsk, boasts 450 yrs of settlement.

The video begins with footage of Anna, two other friends (including my second-cousin Oksana Kolodnytska from Pidhajtsi in Ternopil state) and I leaving from Anna's village for another, nearby village for the wedding.

The majority of Hutsuls identify themselves as Ukrainians, unlike other peoples of the Carpathians who, like the Hutsuls, speak a language closely related to Western Ukrainian dialects but who have traditionally called themselves Rusyns--i.e., who never adopted the Ukrainian sense of their Rusyn identity, such as many Lemkos, Bojkos and Dolynjany. Many members of these Carpathian ethnic groups insist that they form a seperate ethnic identity from Ukrainians and refer to themselves as Rusyn or Carpatho-Rusyn.

I am of the mind that the outsider must accept the ethnic self-definition of the majority of any ethnic group. Hence, Hutsuls indeed are Ukrainian, while it is up to Lemkos, Bojkos and Dolynjany to work out whether they belong to the Ukrainian group or are still to this day Carpathian-Rusyns.

In general, the people of Western Ukraine and the Carpathians of Ukraine are thought to have preserved a great deal of their traditions. These are quite rural and agricultural areas that were once dubbed as among the most isolated and "backward" in Europe --and they may still be. "Backward," however, is a strong and wrong word, depending on one's prejudices (i.e., need of creature comforts); this can be a deeply enchanting and powerful land, especially if one can forego the typical requirements, service expectations, and judgments of a Westerner. Much of what many consider the traditional past remains contemporary here--with all its plusses and minuses (many of the latter of which are formidable vis-a-vis the young and especially for women).

Some notes to the footage:

This is Ukraine, and so drinking vodka (or better, horylka, as it is known in Ukrainian) plays a big role in the wedding festivities. I encourage the viewer to have an open mind about this and also to pay attention to a unique tradition in this area: when drinking a shot outdoors, people frequently would throw the bottom 1/3 or so of the shot over their right shoulder or downward at the ground.

There are some substitles, but much is left untranslated. From what is subtitled, one should easily get the gist of what is going on.

This was obviously shot and edited by a folk music fanatic, thus the emphasis on
music/musicians. Note that while much if not most of the music is specifically Hutsul, some of the music is part of a general repertoire of Western Ukrainian Wedding Music--in particular, note the Wedding March played outside the Groom's Home, which is common throughout Western Ukraine, though with some variation.

Part II will come later, containing:

-Footage of the wedding ceremony at the church
-More footage of the Carpathians from this village of Nyzhnij Bereziv
-The Reception line and various traditions as people arrive at the reception
-Reception dinner and singing
-The Dance--including footage of authentic Hutsul dancing as done, not for the sake of performance but for enjoyment, by contemporary-day Hutsuls, including an arkan
-More footage of the musicians!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ukraine
• hutsuls
• carpathians
• eastern
• europe
• folk
• music
• dance
• traditions
• weddings
• post
• soviet

[phausser]

Wonderful!!

Thanks from South Florida USA

My grandfather was from Galicia. Came to USA in 1918.

[romero667]

What a great video, and great people and music !!! love it !!! love it !! love it !!! this makes me smile !!! Thank you !!

[MrHilaluddin]

@romero667 me too...i am from malaysia...

[igra555]

very interesting, I am from Western Ukraine. Live in USA 8 years. And just 3 states: lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil', speak Ukrainian. Eastern ukraine-russian, Kiev- they tried few years ago, but with this president it went back to russian, Krym-russian. And Zakarpattya-its language vengrian,ukrainian,slovak. U never understand if they begin to speak. Not ukrainian. And I am NOT Rusin. Where did u find this word? Rusychi- this is from Kievan Rus', 9-12 century

[hycyl]

Приємною несподіванкою було натрапити на таке відео з весілля у рідному Н.Березові, дякую! Здається ще зовсім недавно було  це весілля, на ньому ще всі такі молоді. Ностальгія по юності...

[lars3939]

@dykun ethnic recent? on what do you base that on? within the Roman empire ethnic were the differentiators of its citizens and ethnicity has long been so. Confused, and interested.

[snowy16100]

As someone that had both Grandparents came from the old country of Galicia...all I can say is: "I enjoyed the video!"

[PjanujTato]

щастя молодим

[montielito81]

I think that even the term "Ukrainets" an be considered as a variant of "I´m from here" in the sense that the term "Ukraína" was thought as "local, regional place" and not in the sense of a national state, with defined frontiers. "Ukraína" or "Kraina" can be thought as little region or area, and "Ukrainets" or "Krainets" as well.

[montielito81]

It would be interesting causes about why in USA they continued identifying themselves as Rusyns and in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay they came already as Ukrainians. I know that in USA you can find descendants that identify with a Rusyn ancestor identity, but here you can not find them, all they identify and identified as Ukrainians.

[montielito81]

Even, the first associations or cultural centres of Ukrainians immigrants in Argentina were founded by people not from region where the term "Ukraínets" started to be used a time before, but by people from southwestern Ukraine (Boikivshchyna, Transcarpathia, Pokutia, Hutsulshchyna, Bukovyna, Podillia and Besarabia). In northeastern Argentina you can find orthodox and greek-catholic churches built by Ukrainian immigrants during the XIX century and have the "tryzub".