Čepení is a traditional wedding head-dressing ritual during which the bride’s flower crown is replaced by a cap or a scarf. It is also the name of the crown itself.
There are many rituals typical for Czech weddings, varying from region to region, some more modern than other. One of the old ones, widely performed across the country in the past and still preserved in some regions today, is čepení. In this usually very emotional part of the wedding, the flower crows, for which the Czech word věnec should rather be translated as “wreath”, is taken off the bride’s head by a group of married women and replaced by a cap or a scarf as a symbol of loosing virginity and becoming a wife, even though this ceremony took place before the bride and groom spent their first night together. Being a virgin is also called mít věneček – “to have a wreath” and to loose virginity přijít o věneček/ztratit věneček – “to loose a wreath”. And being a married woman is sometimes referred to as být pod čepcem – “to be under a cap”.
Featured picture by Jaroslav Vodrážka: Čepení nevěsty (Čepení of a Bride, from: R. Svačina: Chodská svatba 1939), via ifolklor.cz
Table of Contents
History of Čepení
We know that the history of čepení goes back to at least the 15th century, although it might be even older according to the folklorist Gabriela Směřičková, ethnographer of the Museum of Moravian Slovakia in Uherské Hradiště.
Čepení is not just the name of the ceremony but also of the head decoration itself and in some regions, it would also be called hľadění, hładění, pantlení, pentlení, drůžení or vysoký věnec. It’s a flower crowned adorned by ribbons (pentle) which could be predkánka (color ribbon), kánka (ribbon embroidered with small round mirrors and glass beads), other adorns are gučky (tiny soft balls or yarn balls of colors), pérko (main decoration on the top of the head with a fan of thin glass straws), pantle/pentle (more ribbons placed in specific places), věnec (flower crown itself), blunky (glass beads), rosemary twigs (traditional in Chodsko). Evey microregion or even village has its specifics when it comes to čepení, so depending on where you observed the tradition, the looks of it can be very different.
Pentlení were passed from mothers onto their daughters or made by young girls years before they were engaged and married, together with úvodnice, an embroidered sheet that covered the bride’s hands during the ceremony. To braid the hair correctly, prepare and place all the ribbons and other pieces as well as the crown was not an easy task done by women called vyplétačky.
In the past, this was an intimate ceremony performed only among women. These would usually be older married women from the bride’s village and family, a special importance was placed on the confirmation godmother of the bride. They would gather around the bride, take her crown off, braid her hair around her head and put a cap on, all of this while singing to her. There was no place for laughter. The bride was leaving her home, parents and friends behind to move in with her new husband and often also his family. It was a time to say goodbye to everything the young girl used to know up to this point (even if it meant moving within the same village). In the microregion Dolňácko, it was believed that the bride should cry during the ceremony to ensure that her cows would give a lot of milk. The scarf used to wife the bride’s tears was stored in a chest and taken out only after the bride’s death.
Čepení was not part of the religious wedding ceremony, it was done spontaneously and often very early in the morning.
Mý zlaty červeny čepeni
bejvalo propleteny:
včera mě strojily družičky,
dnes už mě čepí ženy.
“My dear red čepení,
it used to be intertwined.
Yesterday, the bridesmaids dressed me up,
today, the women put my cap on.”
– part of a traditional song sung at the ceremony
The women brought the bride to a separate room, performed the ceremony often only by candlelight. In some regions, the company of the groom’s court called družba had to “build a bridge” – place a line of coins on a table on which the bride could walk to leave the room of the celebration (she was not allowed to just walk around the table), then družba danced with her at the door of the room destined for čepení and since this moment, the young woman was in the hands of the married women. The women would bring her back to the groom who had to “buy her out” by solving tasks the women gave him. Such tasks could be, for example to “bring a mirror that gives reflection but doesn’t have any glass” (bucket of water) or to present to them “nine kinds of fruit” to symbolize the tree of life in paradise (conifer tree decorated with sweets, fruit and candles).
After the Second World War, people started to replace kroj in their everyday life by the clothes we wear commonly today, and gradually, it was also replaced at special occasions such as weddings. Together with the traditional clothing, people started to also leave their traditional customs behind, and so čepení was lost in families and later whole regions.
It was not lost completely though and so we can see this ritual at some weddings, although differently.
Čepení today
The tradition of čepení continues in some places. There are still weddings that are very traditional, the couple wears kroj and their wedding ceremonies are accompanied by folkloric bands, but also those who opt for a more modern wedding sometimes seek this tradition. Some of the couples decide for a more modern version where the bride and groom sit side by side or where the ceremony is performed in the presence of all the wedding guests. In some cases, the bride received also a wooden spoon, while her husband gets a hat and a cane or an axe.
The following are a few examples:
Čepení in Nivnice
Čepení in Strážnice
Čepení in Velké Pavlovice
Čepení in Boršice – singing to the bride
In this video, you can feel the ambient of the event – the bride is not smiling, as čepení was an emotional and rather sad event. The bride was saying her goodbyes to her friends, parents and sisters.
Čepení by the women’s choir Koňadry and the cimbalum band Friška
In art and popular culture
Figurative painters sometimes captured the ceremony.
The ritual was also source of inspiration for Czech composers. Here is a performance of the composition Čepení by Zdeněk Lukáš, interpreted by Gloria Brunensis. This song follows the tradition of the old folkloric songs for čepení – it imitates the dialogue between the bride, bridesmaids and married women:
How to prepare Čepení
If you’re planning a traditional folkloric wedding, this workshop from the microregion Horňácko might come handy:
To learn more about Czech traditions, see Customs & Traditions.
Sources:
- chodsko.net
- Bc. Kateřina Ledvinová – Didaktický potenciál chodského folklóru a jeho
využití ve výuce dějepisu na 2. stupni ZŠ (diplomová práce/Master thesis) - folklorniakademie.cz
- MHGH
- ifolklor.cz
- povalassku.cz
- Chodská čítanka arr. by J. Š. Baar, F. Hruška, F. Teplý (1927)
- castova.cz
- Nikola Salvetová – Připomenutí folklorního rituálu čepení na uherskohradištském Dolňácku
jako soubor publicistických textů pro Slovácký deník/Reminder of folklor ritual čepení at uherskohradištské Dolňácko as a
collection of publicistics texts for Slovácký deník (bakalářská práce/Bachelor thesis) - domazlicky-dejepis.cz
