30th November 2012 Calea Ooheiului 103 Street Chisinau, Moldova

Dear friend, The previous letter you asked me to tell you about the wedding traditions in Moldova. So, the wedding is the most interesting family custom of all. It is also a complex custom which has various traditional forms all over the country and combines economic, law, ritual and folkloric elements. The acts from the marriage foundation are ritual and ceremonial meant to bring prosperity, fecundity, happiness and social integration to the young family. Moldavian marriage is a bouquet of traditions and culture. People sit together and are served with food and wine. Traditional dances also take place. In Moldova, people speak of "wedding parties" instead of just "weddings, The wedding ceremony itself isnt the focus of the festivities; it can be a small, understated event leading up to the wedding party proper, usually an all-night celebration. The modern ceremony includes the old wedding custom of bowing to the parents as a token of gratitude and respect. The traditional wedding party is magnificent in its arrangement, and intense from the moral ethical point of view. The singing and dancing continues until the daybreak. At dawn everyone sits down for a minute and the bride is given a child to hold in her arms. According to tradition, the bride will then be sure to have a home full of children. The young husband then leads her to the threshold of their house. But before they step over the threshold the couple is showered with grain - a sign of prosperity. A Moldovian maxim says: "The person who has failed to build a home, to raise a son, to dig a well and to plant a tree has wasted his life". That's why the Moldovian villages are so green and the houses are so beautiful.

Your friend, Evelina