A Roumanian Peasant Marriage.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 267, 9 November 1889, Page 12 (Supplement)

A Roumanian Peasant Marriage.

The Roumanian peasants have many interesting social customs, and none 'more interesting than their fashion of making love and marrying. The Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva) tolls in the " Forum " how the lads strip the marriageable girls of fclicir long virdle3 «nd wind them about their own bodies. If after a time the parents of tho girl demand the return of tho girdla by the youth trho wears it, he is an accepted lover. To a wedding fche whole village is invited. The troth sponsors stand beside the bridal pair before the altar, bearing in thair hands each a ball, stout wax candle. The bride and bridegroom must thrice eat of the same morsel and drink out of the same goblet, to signify that as long as they live they will share with each other every bit and sup. Then, led by the troth-father and troth-mother, they walk around the altar thrice; that represents the paths through life. During the walk the bride must give a tug to the foot of one of the maids present, who then is sure to be married before the year is out. If the bride is a maid the golden thread is solemnly taken off her head. It 6erves in the place of a veil, and is like a golden hair, being specially becoming when ib reflects the candlelight. Her .hair is then clipped a little, rolled tighb under the handkerchief, and now the girl is for the first time covered with the veil, the token of matrimonial dignity. During this performance the bride must weep and cry, tor henceforth she must never 6how her hair, not even to her husband.