Асаблівасці традыцыйнай вясельнай абраднасці старавераў паўночна-заходняй Беларусі (па матэрыялах ХІХ – пачатку ХХІ ст.)

The northwestern region of Belarus is an important center of Old Believers in the country. For over three centuries, this land has been home to a compact community of Russian Old Believers known as Bespopovtsy, who differ significantly from the local Belarusian population in their spiritual and material culture. Distinctive ethnocultural traditions, which are still being documented today, are particularly revealing in the traditional rituals of the Old Believers. This article analyzes the traditional wedding rituals of the Bespopovtsy Old Believers in the region. Using folklore and ethnographic materials, as well as a wide range of historical sources (including archival ones), the author identifies the characteristics of the Old Believers’ wedding ceremony, analyzes its structure, highlights its distinctive features, and traces its transformation throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The structure, content, and characteristics of wedding ceremonies in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries are analyzed. A significant part of this work is based on materials collected by the authors from the region’s Old Believers during folklore and ethnographic fieldwork. We conclude that the wedding rituals of the Old Believer population underwent significant transformations during their long residence in the northwestern region of Belarus. While initially the Fedoseyev Old Believers, in accordance with their religious doctrine, did not recognize marriage, by the mid-19th century it had become quite common and was even accompanied by a church wedding ceremony. One of the earliest forms of marriage recorded among the region’s Old Believers was the «uvod» (taken away) marriage, which was virtually devoid of ritual elements. This subsequently evolved into an «arranged marriage», which was accompanied by ritual formality. The further evolution of the Old Believer wedding led to the formation of a more extensive version of the ceremony. Its structure had the following stages: matchmaking – wedding – «hlebiny». As follows from the analysis of the materials, the formation of this version of wedding rituals is due to the influence of the local Belarusian population.