The most brilliant day in the year for the Summer Garden is Whltmonday, when the celehrated festival of the choosing of brides takes place. According to the ancient customs of Russia, the sons and daughters of the traders assemble on that day, those to see, and these to be seen. The young damsels, arrayed in all their finery, are marshalled in due order along the flower-beds, and their mammas are carefully stationed behind them. Every glittering ornament has been collected for the occasion, and not only their own wardrobes, but those of their grandmothers too, have been laid under contribution to collect decorations for the hair, the ears, the arms, the neck, the hands, the feet, the girdle, or, in short, for any part of the person to which by hook or by crook any thing in the shape of adornment can be fastened. Many of them are so laden with gold and jewellery, that scarcely any part of their natural beauty remains uncovered. It is even said that, on one of these occasions, a Russian mother, not knowing what she shoidd add to her daughter's toilet, contrived to make her a necklace of six dozen of gilt teaspoons, a girdle of an equal number of tablespoons, and then fastened a couple of punchladles behind in the form of a cross.
The young men meanwhile, with their flowing caftans and curled beards, are paraded by their papas, up and down, before these rows of young, mute, blushing beauties, who, in spite of their bashful looks, are evidently ambitious to please, and seem little disposed to resent the admiration of the swains. The papas and mammas endeavour here and there to engage their interesting charges in conversation with each other ; and in the course of these little colloquies, certain looks and emotions will betray an unsuspected inclination, or perhaps give birth to sentiments pregnant with future moment.
Eight days after this first bride -show, the interviews take place at the houses of the parents, when, by means of family negociations, a marriage is aU but concluded, and the young couple part all but betrothed to each other. Similar customs prevail among all the nations of the Slavonian races, but it is a singular fact that a usage of the kind should have maintained its ground so long in a place like St. Petersburg, where a numerous part of the public has ever been disposed to make the bride-shbw an object of ridicule. Of late years, indeed, the fashion has been gradually dying away, and the description given above applies rather to former than to the present times. Nevertheless, the lads and lasses of what may be called the bourgeoisie of St. Petersburg, still muster in the Summer Garden in great force on Whitmonday, when the foundation is laid for many a matrinumial negotiation ; though the business is conducted with less form and stiffness than was wont to be the case some ten years ago.
On one side of the Summer Garden is the Tzarizinskoi Lug, or Field of the Czars, which has somewhat inappropriately been translated into Champ de Mars. This place is more used than any other for exercising troops, though there are several other parade places in the city, and many of them much larger than the Champ de Mars. The Alexandrofskoi Platzparad, the largest of all, occupies fully a square verst, but lies on the outskirts of the capital. The chief parade, however, is held in the square of the Admiralty, and forms one of the daily enjoyments of many of the inhabitants.
The Admiralty is surrounded by a boulevard and a double row of trees. Under these trees the spectators usually walk about during the time of the parade. The emperor genemUy commands in person ; and as there are always present several thousand men, and a host of generals and staff officers ; this simple parade forms at all times a handsome spectacle, and may, in fact, pass for a miniature review. To see the emperor ride by with his brilliant staff is itself worth seeing. He is a handsome, majesticlooking man. By his side rides his eldest son, and behind him follow a cloud of cavaliers, of whom each is at the least a prince's son and a major-general. As this splendid cortege advances, the soldiers, drawn Up in line, present their arms, and the spectators uncover their heads. " Good morning, children !" is the emperor's salutation ; " We thank your majesty," is the response that comes thundering in unison from thousands of throats. The parade often lasts several hours ; and whoever has witnessed a portion of it, taken a stroll down the Nevskoi Prospekt, looked into the Summer Garden, and walked up and down the English Quay, may quiet his conscience with the reflection that he has neglected no part of the St. Petersburg promenades for that day.