WEDDING CUSTOMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1936, Page 3

WEDDING CUSTOMS

FOREIGNERS IN NEW YORK. The clerks at the New York Marriage License Bureau expected to be busier than ever this summer. Like all the rest of us, they say, Cupid suffered during the depression, but things are brigthening now and orders for his tingling arrows flock in. Wedding bells and showers of rice, orange blossoms and delicate veils are conjured up ordinarily with the picture of the blushing bride and nervous bridegroom. But among the thousands of ceremonies there will be many that are different, borrowing their ritual from distant lands and‘'customs centuries old. In Chinatown the bride will wear a robe of bright red, even as her greatgrandmother did in some far-off Oriental temple a long time ago. Red, tradition tells her, is the colour of happiness and therefore most auspicious for this step in her life. She and the bridegrom kneel before the tablets oi their ancestors and exchange vows. The air is heavy and fragant with incense. With sign and prayer the couple beeseech felicity. The Chinese maiden's cousin from Korea receives from her husband a live

goose or its wooden effigy. The goose out remembers, is a bird that neither lives nor flies alone. The bride of Nippon, Cherry Blossom, and hei bridegroom, Flowing Stream, could not be happily married without a tiny plum tree in blossom, a miniature pine tree which is always green, and a makebelieve turtle that can live for ten m llenniums. These augur a long

and fragrant life. At Russian and Greek Orthodox weddings the couple bear wreaths upon their heads, their reward, lor chastity. They sip a common glass of wine and water, showing their willingness to share the joys and sorrows of the future together. At Greek ceremonies Jordan almonds are munched by the guests so that sweetness will permeate the marital life of the newlyweds.. In basements shadowed by the city s elevated, gypsies often pitch their camps. These nomads have a way of dispensing with the formality of a marriage license or the offices of a priest at their wedding. While gay Romney tunes are played and redkerchiefed neighbours gather, the bride and bridegroom squat upon the floor to eat bread and salt, from their knees. The gypsies say that when the bread and the salt part, then the wedded pair will begin to lose their joy in each other.