Wedding traditions of Europe
Rice and confetti, the veil and the white dress, Polish oczepiny, Greek koumbaro and the Irish handfast. 120 traditions on EveryShaadi so far.
Countries
🇦🇱 Albania 1🇦🇩 Andorra 0🇦🇹 Austria 8🇧🇾 Belarus 7🇧🇪 Belgium 2🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2🇧🇬 Bulgaria 6🇭🇷 Croatia 3🇨🇿 Czechia 2🇩🇰 Denmark 6🇪🇪 Estonia 1🇫🇮 Finland 5🇫🇷 France 23🇩🇪 Germany 22🇬🇷 Greece 14🇭🇺 Hungary 5🇮🇸 Iceland 4🇮🇪 Ireland 13🇮🇹 Italy 13🇽🇰 Kosovo 0🇱🇻 Latvia 2🇱🇮 Liechtenstein 1🇱🇹 Lithuania 2🇱🇺 Luxembourg 0🇲🇹 Malta 1🇲🇩 Moldova 2🇲🇨 Monaco 0🇲🇪 Montenegro 0🇳🇱 Netherlands 8🇲🇰 North Macedonia 5🇳🇴 Norway 6🇵🇱 Poland 15🇵🇹 Portugal 5🇷🇴 Romania 4🇷🇺 Russia 16🇸🇲 San Marino 0🇷🇸 Serbia 6🇸🇰 Slovakia 2🇸🇮 Slovenia 1🇪🇸 Spain 9🇸🇪 Sweden 7🇨🇭 Switzerland 5🇺🇦 Ukraine 9🇬🇧 United Kingdom 54🇻🇦 Vatican City 0
Cities and towns
On the calendar
June, the Western wedding monthSeptember and October wedding peakShrovetide, the old Irish wedding time2/22 and other repeated datesLag BaOmer, weddings resumeMay, the month of brides in BrazilKrasnaya Gorka, the first wedding SundayPokrov, the autumn wedding seasonLentHoly Week and the TriduumAdventOrthodox Great Lent
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreEpithalamium
A poem or song written to celebrate a bride as she goes to her wedding chamber.Performance · The eve
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 morePolterabend
The evening before the wedding when guests break porcelain to bring luck and test the couple's teamwork.Blessing · The eve
🇺🇦 UkraineTraditional Ukrainian weddingТрадиційне українське весілля
A multi-day sequence of folk rites, bread baking and church vows that marks the transition from maidenhood to married liRite · Finding a match
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 7 moreVechornytsiвечорниці
A Ukrainian courtship gathering where young people meet, dance and practice matchmaking rituals before the wedding seasoBetrothal · The weeks before
🇵🇱 Poland and 5 moreTuroń
A horned effigy that visits homes during Carnival to wish for fertility and collect gifts.Blessing · The weeks before
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Epithalamium: Lorenzo Lotto, Public domain, source
- Polterabend: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Traditional Ukrainian wedding: Пимоненко, Николай Корнильевич, Public domain, source
- Vechornytsi: Гейслер, Кристиан Готфрид Генрих, Public domain, source
- Turoń: Museum: The Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, CC0, source