Jelena Ejchgorn

“How a wedding looked like? At first, when they engage, the woman does not go out with the man like the Russians do; in our place it’s only men who go out to celebrate. And they were also shooting on the wedding day, during the whole day. When the young couple was to kiss, they would fire a shot and the bride and groom would kiss. Then they take off her wreath and they put a scarf on her head.” (So Količkova is that girl’s new name?) Yes, they always fill in her new surname. Now they shout ´hor´ instead, but it was not done when I was young – in my youth, they were shooting, and the couple then had to kiss.” Then we went and invited everybody from his family and then there was the wedding. They prepared flowers for the wedding, all the young people who were invited, and the girls created special flower ribbons and gave them to their sweethearts, to show that he was her boyfriend. Boys and girls were decorated with the ribbons.

“There is an oak tree growing in front of our window / There is an oak tree growing in front of our window / my blue-eyed sweetheart dances under it / my blue-eyed sweetheart dances under it / she dances, dances, and will keep dancing / she dances, dances, and will keep dancing / yesterday you were your mommy’s / yesterday you were your mommy’s / and now you are Količkova / and now you are Količkova. Then they take off her wreath and they put a scarf on her head. (So Količkova is that girl’s new name?) Yes, they always fill in her new surname, Količkova or whatever, it was either Czech, like Vinca or Tonda, now there are Russian names, like Kolja, which is not a Czech name.”