Wesele – którędy do domu?

This text has been based on materials collected in the course of ethnographic research on contemporary weddings entitled “Weddings 21” conducted by the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow between 2009-2015. The author (one of the researchers involved in the study) is suggesting that we take a new look at the wedding as an “experience laboratory” connected with a personal approach to cultural heritage. It is becoming an area of practices devoid of institutional context and verified by individual choices and motivations. This is shown by the words of the research participants themselves but also by field observations, ceremony scripts, menus or elements of wedding scenography. Tradition has frequently been an important reference for the young couples and it is now tested to see how useful and up-to-date it is. It appears that the unique moment of taking the vows (in Poland the wedding is a ritual which is celebrated in a most spectacular manner) is accompanied by the feeling of nostalgia – the desire to return to one’s own childhood home, to the home of the ancestors. This is to be ensured by taking part in a ritual which makes the participants feel grounded, connects them with the past and provides them a sense of loyalty. Its image combines such opposing factors as familiarity and shame, indigenousness and backwardness, experiencing closeness and embarrassment. So what is it that we really miss?