There is a nice Slavic wedding tradition to use ceremonial wedding bread to bless the newlyweds and ritually feed the guests. Usually, this wedding bread is made in a round shape or sometimes in the shape of a braid. But in Ukraine, the ceremonial breads can be really curiously or even weirdly shaped. For instance, what would you think about wedding bread shaped like a stick, a boot, an antique laundry beater, etc? Intrigued? Let’s look at different Ukrainian wedding bread loaves from a thematic exhibition.
For every Ukrainian traditional wedding, the couple’s family prepared the main loaf of wedding bread called “korovai”. This tradition exists today as well, but not all of the brides and grooms follow it, while in the past, a korovai was an obligatory element of a marriage ceremony. This wedding bread was round, sweet, high and fluffy, and richly decorated on top.
Except for this loaf, there was various smaller wedding pastry baked for certain members of the families or certain guests. Here are some common shapes that occurred in different Ukrainian regions.
- cone-shaped pastry – small, about fist-size, made from yeast dough. This bread was used as a wedding invitation, every guest received one when they were invited to the ceremony, so the couple’s families usually baked 200 or more of them;
- flower-shaped pastry – small and sweet piece, pepper and honey were added to the dough for sweet and spicy life of the newlyweds. These wedding breads were baked only on Thursday or Saturday and given to the women who baked the wedding korovai as thanks;
- braid-shaped pastry – this item was also presented to the guests while inviting them to the wedding. It was torn into pieces and eaten at once so that the bride was always “young and fresh like this bread”;
- bagel-shaped pastry – ritual wedding bread through which the bride looked at her groom, and then it was cut into pieces and given to the relatives for friendly relationships between them and the newlyweds;
- rectangular-shaped pastry baked with coins inside. It always had to be beautifully embellished on top, which symbolized the happily ever after for the couple. It was cut the next day after the wedding and given to the bridesmaids that brought breakfast to the newlyweds;
- stick-shaped pastry with ornamentation – such sweets were baked for the bride and groom’s grandmothers;
- laundry beater-shaped pastry – another variation of wedding bread for the couple’s grandmothers;
- hut-shaped pastry – wedding bread for the bride and groom’s grandfathers. It was shaped like a small simple hut and inside it, a tiny bottle of vodka was baked;
- rectangular-shaped pastries called “harrow” and “brush” – were made for the godparents of the newlyweds. The harrow for the godfather and the brush for the godmother;
- boot-shaped pastry – usually, there were a pair of these items, like a pair of boots. Such pastry boots were made by the groom’s mother or another close female relative and the groom presented his new mother-in-law, the bride’s mother, with these boots;
- bird-shaped pastry – small but elaborately-shaped sweets for kids.
These are some of the most curiously-shaped Ukrainian wedding breads that traditionally were baked for the wedding. Today, such pastry is rarely made, maybe only in some rural areas. But people still remember how these wedding breads are supposed to look and taste. You can find the photos of the mentioned sweets below.
Main wedding bread loaf called “korovai”
Cone-shaped and flower-shaped wedding pastry
Braid-shaped wedding bread
Bagel-shaped wedding bread
Rectangular-shaped pastry with coins inside
Laundry beater-shaped wedding bread
Rectangular-shaped wedding pastry called “harrow”
Rectangular-shaped wedding pastry called “brush”
Hut-shaped wedding bread with a bottle of vodka inside
Stick-shaped pastry (although, it reminds us of a sword more than a stick) with ornamentation and bird-shaped pastries
Boot-shaped pastries and two pastry doves
