STRANGE CUSTOMS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 48, Issue 2885, 27 March 1939, Page 2

STRANGE CUSTOMS

brides and bridegrooms WEDDINGS IN MANY LANDS LEAP YEAR IN JAMAICA When woman proposes marriage to the man, it’s usually Leap Year, but in Jamaica it is always the woman’s privilege. She owns the lands, selects her husband, and, if displeased with him, takes another! In England there is a special wedding cake, but in some places proffered. food means a rejection. The Thuringain maid serves sausages to an unwanted suitor and in Andalusia a girl says “No” with a slice of pumpkin. In Poland it’s a dish of goose—hence the saying, “Getting the bird.” Blood Ceremony The cup is broken under the bridegroom’s feet after wine is drunk at the Jewish wedding ceremony. The wine symbolises the mixing of the blood, performed literally by gipsies, who mingle the blood of bride and bridegroom.

Japanese couples drink tea from a kettle with two spouts, paper butterflies on the vessel being a token of children to come.

The ring has been a symbol of eternity in Britain since the Saxon time of giving the pledge, or “wed.” The Japanese bridegroom sends his bride gold braid for a girdle and white satin for a gown. Cords of red silk round the waist and ankles of the bridal pair is the Chinese custom, and the bridegroom invites his bride by writing on red paper. That’s why we talk about “red letter” days. The marriage is ararnged by professional “go-betweens,” and an astrologer fixes the day to make the union a happy one. The English bride’s wreath of orange blossom becomes a crown in Norway. The poorest village maiden may be “Queen for a day,” crowns and necklaces being borrowed from the churches. The “best man” originated in Sweden, where he escorted couples home, carrying* a lighted torch. Hungarian brides also wear crowns, and each bridesmaid may carry one. Armenian couples each have a wreath, adorned with gold thread. Three times, the priest ex-

changes the wreaths and thrice must the bridegroom touch the bride’s head. The Caspian bride has a turban wound about her head —all her locks are shorn on her wedding day! The Malay girl must have her teeth filed down to a quarter of their normal size, and in Burma the. ears are pierced. Wedding music drowns the moans of pain. The Japanese wood with plum blossom, cast into the passing litter of his love; the Red Indian lays the moose he has slain at the feet of his affianced; the Breton woos with white bread and brandy.

The Moorish bride is conducted to her husband’s home in a great wedding box hung with her trousseau, mounted on a while mule and led by her negro nurse. Bride Must Apologise The Caucasian bride goes humbly clad among bridesmaids adorned in finery, seeking at every door the forgiveness of the heads of all the families in hei* village for the wrong she may have done. The S'wedish bridegroom sews rosemary sprigs into his wedding clothes to ward off trolls who may steal his bride away. The Eskimo is betrothed in in-

fancy, as Englishmen used to be. By a marriage contract drawn up in 1528, Sir William Sturton Knight bound himself to marry his eldest son Charles to Elinor or Mary or Anne, being the daughters of Walter Hungerford, Esquire, which ever he, Sir William, might think fit, Walter to pay £2OO upon delivery of Charles and £ooo> at stated periods afterwards.