Wedding songs are a vast layer of Ukrainian ritual folklore that musically accompanies the traditional wedding — one of the most complex and ancient folk dramas. Each stage of the rite has its own songs: the matchmaking, the betrothal, the baking of the korovai wedding bread, the unbraiding of the bride's hair, the departure for the church, the greeting of the newlyweds.
In character these songs are extraordinarily varied: from majestic, solemn ones to playful and even ribald perezva tunes. A special place belongs to the ladkannia — ritual songs of well-wishing performed at the most important moments. The melodies of wedding songs preserve very archaic features, and some tunes reach back to pre-Christian times. They are living testimony to how, in Ukrainian culture, song is inseparable from the most important events of human life.
