NOVEMBER MARRIAGES IN HOLLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2325, 4 June 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOVEMBER MARRIAGES IN HOLLAND.

0f : the twelve months, November is reckoned in certain, villagea in Holland to bo by far the most important. The four Sundays of this month' are known respectively as Review Sunday, Decision Sunday, Purchase Sunday Possession Sunday —names which sufficiently explain the purposes to which each is put by the young people. On the first Thursday in November all 'the villagers turn out, in th'eir best attire , to Be'.present at the village VJ fair ; hnd watch' the' respective couples perform the eountrydance, which is the invariable oponing of such events. Oα Review Sunday the unmarried girls andyoung- men, after the morning service, walk up and down staring at one another to their hearts' content. Having made up their minds whom to select on the following , Sunday, the youths, with' the politest bows imaginable, salute the fair ones, and judge from the way in which their courtesy is responded to whether success or defeat is to be their lot. The third Sunday is devoted to the less' romantic task of obtaining the consent of the parents and arranging in business-like fashion the details of the marriage settlement; The stem hearts of those'in authority having been satisfactorily subdued all the following 1 week the parson is busy at: marrying; but not until Possession Sunday comes round are the happy betrothed' permitted more than an affectionate gaze or at most a tender squeeze of the hand. :