An Ostrobothnian Peasant Wedding

A peasant wedding in the Ostrobothnian countryside at the beginning of the century usually lasted at least 3 days as the wedding was the greatest festival in a persons life. Far in advance preparations were made for the wedding. The living-room in the bride's home was decorated with fringed sheets, silk shawls, mirrors and sconces. Early in the morning on the wedding day the bride was dressed by the bride's dresser. Her hair was plaited hard and the crown, which was about 30 centimeters high and decorated with tinsel was sewn to her hair. The music was woven into the wedding celebration from the beginning to the end. The fiddlers had to be on the go from the arrival of the first guests till the moment the last guests left the wedding house after several days of eating, drinking and dancing. Singing was heard outdoors and indoors. People sang good-luck songs, songs at mealtimes and songs toasting the bridal couple. The guests sang, the bride sang, the bridegroom sang, and time and again a single singer would strike up a song.

When Otto Andersson recorded folk music in Ostrobothnia between 1902 and 1905 he was fascinated by the richness and the beauty of the wedding music. It is said that an inn-keeper in Purmo song the first wedding song when he drove Otto Andersson to Esse. Later on Otto Andersson and Victor Novacek arranged the melodies to be performed by the choir and the string Orchestra of the Brage Association. At the same time there was a hope of being able to give a common frame to the music and the dances. The result was that Army Chaplain A. R. Hedberg wrote some dialogues and monologues in the Petalax dialect and subsequently the Peasant Wedding came to comprise 7 tableaux.

The Brage Association of Vaasa

The Brage Association of Vaasa was founded in 1908, two years after Otto Andersson had taken the initiative in starting the Brage Association in Helsinki. According to the regulations the task of the Brage Association of Vaasa is to care for, preserve and promote the Swedish folk-culture of Finland as it appears in literature, customs, music, dances and games. Within the association there work a mixed choir and folk-dance team as well as a dramatic section and a museum section. The association maintains an open-air museum, the "Bragegården", which comprises 22 old buildings from the Ostrobothnian countryside.