MARRIAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1940, Page 8

MARRIAGE

« —— CUSTOMS IN MANY LANDS. The Albanian bride does not leave her father's house until after the wedding festivities have ended, and these may take even a year after the actual wedding. In the. old days in Russia the prospective bride gave her husband a whip she had made herself, as a token of submission to her lover. On the wedding day the groom stroked his wife gently with the whip, to show he was the master. In India the bridegroom repeats during the ceremony, these words:

“May that heart which is yours become my heart, and that heart which is mine become thy heart.’ ' x The Persian bride and groom do not see each other until after the betrothal. Even then, the girl is painted and powdered so much that her future husband cannot tell what she looks like. ' In Turkey bachelors are supposed to be related to Satan, widows nearly always re-marry. Old maids are taboo. Everyone marries early. Egyptian girls marry from 12 to 13 years; few later than 16. In Scandinavia, the bridegroom gives the bride a prayer book, and a goose. The bride gives the groom a shirt, which he wears on the wedding day. A Bulgarian peasant cannot marry until his parents give him sufficient money to purchase a wife. The price is from £5O to £3OO, depending on the social status of the bride’s parents.

Doctor: “To be quite candid with you, your trouble is laziness.” Patient: “Yes, doctor, I know; but what is the scientific name for it? I’ve got to tell the wife.”