Siberian Estonians - Marriage and Family



The main pattern was the small monogamous family based on a separation of labor by sex. Cases of discrimination against women were very rare. In the last decades, many family rituals have changed. A number of rituals connected with the birth of a child—such as pouring the baptism water on an apple tree or on a rose bush in blossom or throwing a bowl of holy water over the roof of the house—have disappeared. It remains a custom to give presents to the mother and child, however. The marriage ceremony is staged as a performance that includes some national traditions—engagement, delaying the marriage procession to get ransom, the groom's search for his bride in a crowd of other women, the ritual of taking the wreath off the bride's head, and others.


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