From ancient times in Russia, one of the most important pre-wedding ceremonies was parental blessing. The very meaning of this word sounds like "praise of the future."
Why do I need a parental blessing?
The decision of the young to marry or marry against the parental will never promised anything good, because only the parental blessing for the wedding was considered a pass to a happy family life, it gave peace and prosperity. Pronounced with true faith, it possessed special power and significance. The ritual of blessing was so obligatory that if the bride and groom were orphans, they turned to the godparents, and if they did not remember them, then the most respected people in the village were invited to the role of planted parents, to whom grateful children should provide help and reverence until they were old. Today, despite the changes taking place in the life of the new generation, fashion trends and addictions of modern youth, centuries-old traditions are still strong. However, about how to bless his son before the wedding, how to conduct this beautiful sacred procedure with his daughter, unfortunately, not everyone remembers and knows.
How should the ceremony of blessing take place?
So, let's try to figure out how to bless his son before the wedding?
According to the old custom, the blessing is as follows: after the bride’s redemption procedure was completed in her house, before leaving for the registry office, just before leaving, the parents pick up the oldest icon of the Savior and the Virgin Mary in the house, the bride and groom kneel in front of their parents, and those, in turn, impose a sign of the Cross over them with an icon, read a prayer and speak their parting speech. The blessing of the son before the wedding (as well as the daughters) is not only a wish for happiness and wise advice on how to save him, but also approval of the children’s choice of their second half. It is at this moment that the bride becomes the daughter of the groom’s parents, and the groom, respectively, the son of the bride’s parents. This ceremonial is always very touching and rarely leaves anyone indifferent. In the old days, after the blessing ceremony, the bride often cried, as she left her home forever.
What else to know …
Before blessing a son before a wedding or a daughter, you need to make sure that young baptized people are the main condition for performing the ceremony.
Traditionally, it was necessary to bless the daughter with the icon of the Mother of God, while it was possible to bless the son before the wedding with both the icon of Christ the Savior and Nicholas the Wonderworker. The icons by which parents blessed the young, after the wedding, went to the newlyweds' house in order to preserve and protect their fragile family happiness for many years. They become a real heirloom and are passed on from generation to generation.
As the Bible says, God endowed fathers and mothers with special power over children, which they must use wisely and with love. Therefore, the rite of parental blessing is a quivering, exciting and crucial moment not only for the bride and groom, but also for their parents.
