MARRIAGE IN SCOTLIND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1910, 22 December 1874, Page 2

MARRIAGE IN SCOTLIND.

i :[OTAGO DAILY TIMES.] . Fronvthe report; of the Scotch7.Registrar General are to be gleaned some , r very interesting particulars respecting the marriage customs of Scotland, as^contrasted with those ; of England.' ' The^EDglisft and Scotch marriage practices, are, singularly enough, in many respects- J tne 1 exact reverse, each, of the other. . In .England. wHere !iihe. r relatip r h' of marriage to religion is more ...oistinctiy.recp l gnised' than in Scotland, almost all arer.cpritracfe'djj in church, or, at least, in a ptacefjoj worship. In Scotland it is in private houses that almost all are solemnised. In England, consequently, .32 per cent^qf all maraiages are contracted on •. &, iSuriday, "for ; something of the old sacramental feeling still lingers ; and in' "couiitry districts many couples would still be made uncomfortable if they did not receive -the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, .after r the .rite. In Scotland/ only 'lß4 marriages 'are contracted on'thai day against: 22, 841: in- an %verage year,' being only, a f .liftle ! less .than one per cent., and this in spite of the enormous influx -of Irish /into Glasgowj (Sreen6ck, Dundee, Aberdeen, and / the^ i>rhei manufacturing towns, m; ;•>.■■ u:chottH< ; In England, o wing ; to the ing influence, only;2_.per,cen'i'..'flf.'tiie^marriages are celebrated on Friday ; whereas, in Scotland, over 43 percent." take "place on that day. t One ; authority 'seeiria- 0 to think.that'Eaglishmeri will 'be- mctined to attribute the great love of Friday marriages among the Scotch tp the .lingering Druidical superstitions of Friday, being the day dedicated to Friga, the dies, veneris of the Latins." The Englishman wlic is ignorant enough to suppose that Friga, ,or .any of the seven ; gods, .from. .Sun, tc Saeter, to whom ■ jthe -days 'of the Feet are dedicated; had -/anything to do'lntl the -Dr aids, for to obeiieyevthat "the Latins ''divided the year H into periods oJ seven days, and called one of them dies yen& ris, is ;fool eriojugh for anything. So, possibly, he.-may believe this, especially as the Scotch Registrar-General appears tc certify to his premises! As, however, most educated Englishmen^Know-- thai and heir' five brethren and one sistei were Teutonic and' not M Druidical "ii deities ; and that dies veneris is ; but, a translation, of- comparatively modern-date, <-verj few "mere; Southrons," ■■ whose . opinion* is worth -haying, will think anything oi tbe M sbrt. f ■'"■'■ ■ ' ' '"; '' '■-'■ <'■■-'> .'• - If a-religious solution is to ~ be- looked for, a much more probable one will be found in the "thrawn", nature of the people; who at- the /Reformation rdetermined to do the exact opposite ,of ithe Catholics in - non-essentials ; no lefe than esseatials. " Marriage ion Friday involved a festival'on'a Catholic Fast 'Bay'/ijust as the Christian festival" ;pf the week is -observed' as a day; of fiolemn ° observance, Jiist'sa in I public; worship tijey- sit when 'most other ' Chriatain ; .\ bodies .stand, 'and stand when others kneel. ProbdMy, tfoweverj this feeling has id' this particular instance had less'to do with practice than convenience and the desire to economise "JSext to Friday, Tuesday is the favourite day fof the week %r marriagea in r Scptiarid, 1^.6 per cent. "of mamages being .celebrated on it.''. ri TiLe|3^egisirarGeneral suggests' no reasbn^imy^^piogical or otherwise,; ]for;. this preference^' or for the disfavour in"wliioh singularly- enough, Wednesday i»;i c held.'an both countries. We cannot, venture.on. any. .suggestion to assist him, but effects, in which too many millions of persons are concerned to' admit of the Bolutioa,of mere chancejinust have a cause somewhere, if one could only discover it. It^is hard ; to see why either convenience or superstition, should make Tuesday a favorite day ah'd give to'Wbdnesday so ill a reputation ; but s.o, it is. .Among the months, May is in the wprat 'odour in both .countries. At first vsigatj fthis is singular, as i poets . .have, alwaysjimade May. the : month of love^makingi.jrbiit the reasons are not -far to seek. In Scotland, ■^'flitting, I ".or ; change ';pf dwelling^owhich almost invariably ; takes place 4 between the '25iii'and 28th; of^s mopathj'gre.atlj'ibterfersr with/marriages: : 'It' is 'often' tiot until the'ehd of Itfay; tfrat ..the' 1 r inbst ardeat suitor can^obtain : a" lhoiae.for his beloved ; and .again engagements in domestic and other service are usully terminable^ at the same date, and the intending brides* usually spend a few weeks at home; in' making the needful preparations for the impending event. The same month is scarcely in less disfavour inuEngland,>where the unknown apparently to the Registrar superstition atili/.li^eri.that '.May.^ ,V the 1 mo&th of Mary,;"ißTinlucky forma^rimon^/' The favourite , raonihs in, Scptland^are " December/and'«) jine^ M ier,wh'ici ''io)ipw t . Hovenaber.and July .V.Fpr their preferea < 'c no reason can ibeiisuggested, except in ao far as the paucity of marriages in May already iiovl occasions a larger number in June, and the occurrence of the term day, MarUnmas, . on November 15th, sets free a number of eligible damsels in that ?&#£ W*& h , .*- c^JsWerable riiimber of tlie'm see fit to take a ' fortnight; or bo to

make their preparation. And so, while the more ardent are sufficient in number to raise November to a fair position, the more prudent virgins, who we need not say. outnumber them in Scotland, are so numerous that December fairly outstrips During ten years, out of the 224,222 marriages contracted, no lesstjiKan; 12,000 were celebrated on the laS^iay bi j ; /the year. The Registrar-General need hafclly rack his brains as he does to seek the solution. The same reason applies which accounts for the favour in which Saturday is held. New Year's Day is for •want bi Christian festivals, the great holiday of the year in Scotland, and bhe great season of festivity. Matrimony, which ia not allowed to interfere with the Sabbath or the equally sacred business, can find no fitter season. Besides, the season brings home the necessity of cdrinnSial'Bnugness to the lonely swain. It is not therefore strange that while December is held in s"ucK'fav6uf, ! s. 3s per cent; ! of themarriages celebrated on the 365 days of the year should date from the 31st of that month ; though that proportion ia " higher than the whole month of May, aDd very nearly equal toHhe proportion of unions taking place in March, April, and September respectively." When, hewever, " The Auld Year's Day " falls on a Saturday, -the phenomenon is modified in a manner that Btrangely pioves its cause. Thisvras the case in 3869, and in that year whi131055 marriages came off on the Friday, the Saturday, the usually favourite 31st, only rejoiced in 59, and those the RegistrarGeneral assures us, entirely among "English and , Irish," and such like benighted foreign bodies, of whom, of course, no account need be taken. The Registrar-General concludes by assuring his countrymen, that though at first he thought these singular coincidences aishi be caused by superstitious feelings such as certainly decrease the number of marriages south of the Tweed during the season of Lent and the month of May, he can find, "on extended enquiry," no vestige of superstition or sentiment in them. The favourite days and months aie, as he pathetically assures us, dictated by the "practical genius" of his conntrymen, and that alone. In making this assurance, however, he has apparently forgotten that on which he had previously bo proudly insisted — namely, that the paucity ~- of marriages on Sunday is the result of " the Scottish regard for the • sanctity of the Sabbath, " though he fails to tell us how that sanctity is violated by an act, J which is at least venial, if not laudable, upon any other day of the seven. > The .conclusion we have arrived at — as. we'' do, implicit reliance in an official so highly placed as the RegistrarGeneral of Scotland— is that while English marriage practices with regard to days and and seasons are suggested by lingering traditions of an effetesuperstition, those of Scotland'are dictated by an enlightened regard at once to business and reformed religion. : For remainder of News see teh page.