A few days before the New Year, Greek-Australian Nickie Papadimitriou and Australian-Assyrian Johnathan Hana married. For their big day, they blended traditions from Florina, Greece, with customs rooted in Assyria, an ancient Middle Eastern civilisation presently hemmed between northern Iraq and south-eastern Turkey.

The ceremony on Saturday, December 30, at St Catherine’s Greek Church in Malvern, Melbourne, was conducted by Father Georgios Adamakis, and it resulted in a springwell of joyful tears among friends and family gathered.

“I felt overwhelming joy seeing my daughter so happy; it was a wonderful gift for us.

“My deepest wish is that the life ahead for my daughter and son-in-law remains as beautiful and joyous as the early days of their union,” the bride’s father told Neos Kosmos Yiannis Papadimitriou.

Hellenic wedding customs alive in Australia

Hellenic traditions resonated through musical instruments like davuls (large double-headed drums played with mallets), violins, and clarinets. Many wedding customs from the bride’s side of the family made it a celebration reflecting many traditional wedding customs from Greece.

The day became more special with the arrival of guests from Greece, including Aimilios Papadimitriou, the brother of the bride’s father, along with his wife Haroula, who travelled from Florina to join the Papadimitriou family on this happy day.

However, the visits to Greece continued.

“We also had musicians from Greece,” noted Papadimitriou, referring to “one of the finest clarinetists in all of Macedonia” Nikos Kalpatsinidis, as well as Christos Xanthopoulos, who happened to be in Melbourne as guests of the Pontian Association of Whittlesea “Panagia Soumela,” and were invited to the wedding due to a perceived “moral obligation,” to extend invitations to villagers who come to Australia all the from Greece.

Intangible cultural heritages are alive

“Many of the traditional customs of Macedonia are still observed today, and some are even upheld in our “foster” homeland, Australia,” said the bride’s father.

“The wedding preparations kick off well in advance,” Papadimitriou added, highlighting the integral role of the best man in the wedding customs.

“It all started on Thursday,” he recalls, with young girls, or “Posestrimes” locally known in Florina, gathering at the bride’s parent’s house, who sifted flour while singing Greek traditional songs, initiating the leavening process.

After the fermentation of the sourdough, the custom includes the “zegol,” a metal scale (previously used to keep pairs of cattle or horses together), and branches of basil, which young children pass around the pieces of wood that serve as supportive structure for the canopy of the house with the purpose of “bringing blessings to the couple’s home” and the wish that their marriage will be steadfast.

Once the bread is baked, otherwise known as “pogatsa” according to the local dialect of Florina, the groom and the bride are called upon to break it three times, in celebration of the Holy Trinity, before distributing it to their guest with a glass of wine, symbolising the first miracle of Christ at the wedding at Cana, where he turned water into wine.

Saturday, on the wedding day, a metal tray with the “pogatsa” on a white cloth was placed at the feet of Nickie’s father, who was seated in a chair.

Then, close relatives arrived at the house to bid farewell to the bride, accompanied by the background music of a song titled “Farewell to the Bride” (Αποχαιρετισμός της νύφης), creating an atmosphere charged with intense emotions of joy and sadness.

“It was a bittersweet feeling that we experienced that day because, after many years, the girl who was born and raised in our home bids farewell to her father, mother, grandparents, grandmothers, and relatives. It’s a bittersweet moment, with tears but also joy,” shared Yiannis Papadimitriou.

After the farewell, the best man escorted the bride without touching her, placing a towel over her. Before she stepped outside, he threw a small amount of rice and bread in all directions (right, left, front, and back), making the sign of the Cross three times with each tossing motion, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.

After the bride poured the water from a glass to signify the removal of negative energy from the house, the best man initiated the first dance, and together with the bride’s family relatives, they made their way to the car, marking the final farewell before the bride’s arrival at the church.

The power of multicultural love

“The traditions linked to us Macedonians from Florina incorporate elements of faith, family, and blessings and cannot be omitted—they are a symbol of our identity.”

A range of customs were continued throughout the wedding reception. For example, younger guests performed the traditional dance of Macedonia, “Zaramo,” during which they took a piece of pogatsa bread and then “danced” in circles.

“This bread symbolises the blessing of the Holy Trinity that we wish for our children’s home,” explained Papadimitriou, who, along with the father of the groom, broke the pots three times, just as the newlyweds had done earlier, sharing the pieces with the guests.

While the bride practised Macedonian customs, the groom and his family had traditions.

According to Assyrian customs, the groom is called the ‘King’, and the person leading the first dance symbolically holds a sceptre, signifying the groom as the ‘King of the house’.

The Papadimitriou family took part in the traditional dances of the groom’s family, of Assyrian heritage, celebrating multicultural traditions through the power of love.

Preserving traditions across generations

Papadimitriou said that what “pleased and moved” him was the opportunity for fourth-generation children to witness these traditions up close.

With tears in his eyes, he observed his six-year-old nephew dancing “traditional dances all night long.”

“This was heartwarming to watch. Realising all the effort we’ve put in to preserve these beautiful, treasured ancestral customs was worthwhile.

” It is reassuring to think that when they get married someday, these children might continue the legacy of these traditions that we once practised.”