Parental blessing for marriage is an important and exciting rite, which precedes the ordinance of the church wedding.
Since ancient times, the blessing of parents was considered to be one of the conditions for a happy family life for young people. This is evidenced by the words of prayer, which the priest reads at the wedding. They say that the prayerful blessing of parents is one of the most important events on the day of the creation of a new family.
Parents bless the young on the wedding day itself before the wedding. Usually this happens in the house of the bride, where her parents, along with the groom's parents, bless them to create a new family and a happy family life.
For the blessing of a couple of icons, which are popularly called wedding. Icons of Christ and the Theotokos, the parents of the newlyweds usually keep on embroidered towels. During the blessing, the newlyweds stand in front of the parents, and the parents describe the cross three times with icons. The bridegroom is blessed with an icon of the Savior, and the bride is an icon of the Virgin. The newlyweds make a sign of the cross and kiss the image. After this, parents give a couple of icons to the young and tell them a parting word.
The rite of the newlyweds' blessing by the wedding icons symbolically means that the time for the upbringing of the children by the parents has come to an end and they entrust them to the intercession of the Lord and the Mother of God.
After the parental blessing, these icons are brought to the church with the newlyweds, and are applied to them during the sacrament of the wedding.
The wedding icons, which the bride and groom receive from their parents on the wedding day, are kept young and often happens so that in the future they can bless these icons and their children. Thus, wedding icons often became a family shrine, which was passed down from generation to generation.
