Polish Wedding Traditions

Most Poles are Roman Catholic. Once a woman marries, her mother and female relatives hold a special ceremony to unbraid her hair and cover it with a czepiec, or white bonnet. (Unmarried women wear a single braid, uncovered.) Reception feasts may include roast pork, borscht, sausage and poppy seed cakes. The couple eats bread, wine and salt so that they might always have food, enjoy sweetness and overcome bitterness. The bread represents the hope that the bride and groom will never go hungry. The salt is a reminder that life may be difficult at times, but that they will learn to cope. The wine symbolizes the desire that the couple will never go thirsty, and that their lives will be filled with health and happiness. They then hold silver coins to enjoy financial security.

During the "Sto Lat" Toast (Polish for "100 years"), guests wish the couple a century of happiness. An elder male blesses the couple at the Zerkowiny, or handbinding ceremony, in which he joins their hands with an embroidered cloth (which becomes a wedding memento) over a loaf of bread.

The festivities feature a "money dance" in which guests pin money to the bride's veil. Alternately, guests may form a circle around her and toss money into her veil, or the maid of honor collects money in her apron. The removal of the bridal veil, known as the oczepiny ceremony, is another traditional element of a Polish wedding day. The bride's veil will be removed as she enters the reception hall, signifying the end of her maidenhood and her transition to a married woman. Later, the bride may transfer her veil to the bridal party, who take turns wearing it in hopes of being the next to marry.