BRIDAL CUSTOMS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 7 August 1926, Page 11

BRIDAL CUSTOMS

AS OBSERVED IN MANY AGES.

MOWADAYS our girls face the altar as brides in satin and lace, brides in the useful tailor-made and brides in a. practical afternon gown. But ancient brides invariably arrayed themselves in robes of lustrous white for the marriage ceremony. White was originally chosen as being appropriate and typical of simplicity and spotless innocence. Hence its suitability for the blushing bride. In wordy wisdom on the marriage question, an Elizabethan poet declared that black was for the widow, purple for the wife, and white for the maiden. Alas! what shocks that poet would receive were lie to reincarnate into our midst to-day. If a widow re-marries, she is more likely to say: "I will” in a gay Paisley frock than in depressing black. As i for wives and purple—! Well, wives will be wives, and those of to-day like the prettiest dresses imaginable, as any husband will tell you. The bride of the old days was not only distinctive in her voluminous white, but was remarkable for three ornaments which no unmarried girl might presume to wear uulcs she were a spouse on her way to the celebration of her nuptials. These ornaments were the ring, the brooch on her breast, and the garland on her head. The ring, of course, is an intricate symbol, the origin of which we have no space here to describe. The brooch signified maidenly innocence; the garland represented the

crown of A ictory accorded her for subj doing the temptations to OA-il that had! beset her on her virtuous course from! childhood to matrimony. No ividowj might Avear a garland. In very early times our forefathers crowned both the bride and the groom with chaplets of iiowers; but later, tvhen the Avreath became a religious symbol, its use AAas confined to femininity. It was made in divers Avavs and of Ararious flowers. In lands abounding with myrtle and olive it was composed of the leaves of these plants, intermingled with Avhite and purple blossoms. In auhl England roses anji sprigs of myrtle were considered tlie orthodox thing. _ A rosemary ci'oavu was another favourite. Noav avo have reached the stage of orange-blossom. If we go on as avo are doing the next generation Avill Avear the flaming croton. The bridal veil is the relic of an Anglo Saxon custom. It Avas the con'ventional , thing for a bride to go through the ceremony of changing her name Avith her long, unrestrained locks flowing to her waist. The privilege of wearing tlie hair long Avas restricted do damsels born of free parents. It was the sign of freedom. Servile ’girls, by the Avay, always Avore their hair cropped, or bobbed, to use the modern term. The marriage ceremony overplus newlymade Avife bound up her tresses as identification that freedom avus past and done Avitli for cycr.