MARRIAGE BOOM

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1933, Page 6

MARRIAGE BOOM

GREAT DAY IN ROME

2600 BRIDES SEE THE POPE,

The new Italian i'estiva] on the /Fascist calendar—the Festival of Marriage—was celebrated in Rome on October 30, ,and was pronounced, a great success by the authorities. The wedding procession consisted of 2600 couples. Everywhere they were greeted with applause -and rose petals. Bachelors qkulkod apprehensively in the back streets.

Married at dawn in their respective, parish churches, the brides and grooms walked in procession through the streets to the Church of Saint -Mary of the i'/ngels, in which the whole floor space was covered with faldstools for the imposing nuptial array.

After a particularly -beautiful musical service land nuptial mass the couples mice more reformed into columns and walked to the Fascist Recreation Hall, where the Secretary of the Party handed each bridegroom an enevelope ■carrying Signor 'Mussolini’s good wishe 6 end a money gift, equal to from about £5 to £B. foi’ the purchase pf a baby's outfit. .

PROCESSION TO THE VATICAN. The Roman public crowded' the .route to see the unusual spectacle of wholesale marriage, but those who went to be amused remained to cheer. The couples were of all sorts and condition/-;, some in orthodox wedding attire, some an Italian costumes, (and many in ordinary everyday clothes The grooms found courage in company, and the brides blushed just as well in mass array as they dp when singly in conn mand. .

In the evening the n.ewly-inarried •couples were once more on parade to the Vatican, where they were, received and blessed -by the Pope’. To emphasise his sense of the importance of the occasion, the Pope was ■carried into the Audience. Hall in the Sedia Gestatoria, and with full coiirt mounting the golden throne he gave the 2600 couples a homily on the sanctity of marriage and the blessings of fruitfulness. After his Papal benediction each bride and groonr received a rosary in gift. Later in the evening many of the. popul restaurants) of 'Rome were, {turned into halls of festivity, and night fell on a memorable but wearying day for the newly-w.ed. in the new style. HITLER’S DOWRIES TO BRIDES. No fewer than, 122 couples were married ,a.t the. same hour in t-h e : same church in Hamburg on Sunday, October 29. After, the ceremony they .and their all joined in one big wedding breakfast. Local Nazi leaders were hob-, opred gupsts at this mass wedding, be-1 cause it was a sequel to the Nazi | Party’s appeal to employers tp make serious, war on unemployment. . In, order, to give to men posts hitherto held by women the great tobacco firm of (Reemstma announced, that it would give a bonus pi 600 marks- (about £3O) to every, woman .employed in the factory for longer than one yea r who would leave ,tp get married before the epd of this year. The offer was accepted by 122 women.

i An even- larger, wedding, of this sort i was to take place last unonth in Dres- ; den, where the same firm ma,de a simii lar .offer to its women employees. Here ! 213 had 'decided in October to qualify for the bonus. There was still better news for the unemployed in an announcement at the end of October that the Governny?nt had resolved to expedite the widening of the old. Dortmund-Ems ■canal, which connects the industrial district of Dortmund with the North Sea port of Eanden. The widening of the' canal, it is estimated, will provide 20,000 men with work for tour years, end the -Dortmund foundries with orders for 100,000 tons of iron and riteel, required \for " the ; rdmailtatneous widening of locks and. bridges..