In the evening, after the guests are gone, the priest unties the red and green ribbons from the hands of the wedding couple. During that ceremony the best man keeps above their heads a sword and a shield. The bridesmaid makes the bed for the couples. The red wine, honey, candy and fruits are placed next to the bed. During that night no one was staying at the house. The family members were spending the night by their relatives. Early in the morning the bridegroom was shy to come to his parents house, and was going to one of his relatives place. In the evening the relatives were bringing the bridegroom back to home, where he was kissing the hands of his parents.

A crucial situation or Red Apple

It is hard to say since when the Armenians have the idea of “Red Apple”. Not always the Armenians had the “Red Apple” tradition. It is known that during the pagan times in Armenia the girls were sacrificing their innocence to the Astghik Goddess on the day of her veneration in the temple that had her name.   They were sacrificing it to the wanderers, foreigners, in other words- to the tourists. Hereafter, those girls were becoming the most desired brides, because their beauty was sheltered by the Astghik goddess herself. There is no sense in criticizing the customs of our ancestors, because the value system has been changed numerous times before coming to our times. It is obvious though, that during all these centuries the idea of the “Red Apple” anyhow has reached to us- turning from one extreme side to another.

In the conservative class, the apple was signifying the girl’s innocence. To ensure the “existence” of the “Red Apple” a special ceremony was held. Many people were gathering, including the relatives, neighbors and gossiping women (it was very important to shut their mouth) and were starting their “inspections”. Usually the things were getting so extreme that the mother-in-law was taking the wedding-sheet and was showing it to the neighbors. To avoid making a negative mood, we will skip the information explaining what was happening with the girl, in case of “Red Apple”  “absence”. We can only add that the girl’s situation was becoming very sad. Anyway, in case of positive result, the bridegroom’s mother, aunt and other female relatives put red apples in the salver and go to the bride’s house for congratulating. At the bride’s house everyone was waiting for them with already prepared dinner.