SUPERSTITION IN MARRIAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 16

SUPERSTITION IN MARRIAGE

“TYING THE KNOT” (By VERA RADCLIFFE.) Supersitions with regard to marriage are always interesting, partly, I suppose, because we have the fact so firmly implanted in us that marriage must be a lottery anyway! It is strange to think that our custom of the honeymoon probably arose from primitive times, when it was considered altogether more “dashing” to marry a girl outside your own tribe, a fact which mostly resulted in having to carry her off by force. Naturally it was safest to hide the lady until the danger of her being rescued, or herself escaping, was passed. After a time, with luck, she would settle down, and the honeymoon might be considered over. Recently, in a London daily. I saw a young couple advertising for another young couple to share their honeymoon trip on the Continent—in their motor! So far, have we grown from our beginnings! The well-known-phrase, “tying the knot,” is believed to be of Babylonian origin. There a thread was taken from the clothes of the bride and bridegroom and symbolically tied together. DAY TO AVOID It is considered unlucky to marry on your birthdaj', but a god omen when the dates of husband's and wife’s birtn fall on the same day of the month. Not on the same day of the week, in the same year, however, as the man and woman should not be exaetly the same age. The right temperaments for happy marriage ought not to be born in months far apart, according to astrology, for they are likely to clash—and quarrel! Although a good many have “risked it,” it is not lucky for two brothers to marry two sisters. One couple, it is thought, will have all the luck going—there won’t be enough for both. A wedding party should consist of an even number of guests. We all know the saying: “Happy is the bride the sun shines upon.” Perhaps we do not all know that marriages at on«a time were performed in the churchyard, and not inside the church—which would make it very tiresome, should the rain pour down. The idea that it is unlucky if there is an open grave at the time of a wedding most likely also originated at these churchyard * weddings—it certainly would not add to their gaiety. EASTERN ORIGINS The bridal couple ought not to enter and leave the church by the same door if it can be avoided. Throwing rice at weddings is a survival from the East, -where the importance of the rice crop made it the acknowledged symbol of fecundity. The throwing of a shoe is also Eastern in origin; the Jews used to confirm a sale or exchange by removing a shoe. The significance of the shoe did not start with Jews, but belonged to earlier civilisations. It is considered to upset the luck if the shoe thrown after the bridal pair hits any person which would account for it always being thrown at or attached to the carriage. THE WEDDING MORN An old saying is that a man “never wives and thrives” in the same year. It is unlucky for him to see his bride on the wedding morning until the ceremony starts. A bride must not look at herself in the glass when she is completely dressed. Some consider it brings ill-luck if anyone but the husband removes his wife’s wedding ring —even herself. In former times if the younger sister married first, the elder sister was supposed to dance barefoot at her weddilW' i Two ol(i English sayings are well known to everybodv. One is* “Marry in Lent. And you’ll live to rel V t nt - e can . trace in that a stricter church supervision than prevails today, yet even now Lent weddings are not fashionable. The other is: “Change the name, and. not the letter. Is to change for the worse, and not for the better.” I have yet to meet the young man ?°y e who has really been put off by this warning!