Marriage Customs in Calabria.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 4

Marriage Customs in Calabria.

An Italian contemporary describes the Greek colonies which exist in many parts of Calabria. They were originally settlements of the Albanians and Epirotes who, about three centuries ago, crossed the Adriatic Sea and founded new homes on Italian soil. They have preserved the Greek language, though somewhat corrupted, until the present day, and they still retain many of their ancestral customs. A marriage in one of these colonies has several old Greek features. On the wedding day the bridegroom, accompanied by a. troop of young men carrying a banner, appears before the bride’s house, and knocks loudly at the door. The door is at once flung open, and the bride in her long wedding garment is seen on the threshold. She' wears a coronet of flowers, and she and her bridesmaids join the procession of the young men and walk to the church. The marriage is celebrated after the Greek ritual. At the Communion after the marriage the priest dips the sacred host in the chalice, according to the Eastern use, and gives it to the husband and wife. He sets a kind of crown upon the head of each in turn. There is also a procession round a table placed in the nave of the church, on which the crown is laid, and man and wife alternately take up the crown and wear it during the procession. The wedding party then marches to the house of the husband. Here the wife, following ancient precedent, hesitates at the threshold, and affects a dread of entering. The mother-in-law appears, however, to welcome her, embraces her new daughter, and places a sugared almond in the young wife’s mouth. This is the sign that she may henceforward regard herself as the true houeerristress. She crosses the threshold and the whole party follows.