Wednesday and Thursday for Weddings.

Otago Witness, Issue 2376, 14 September 1899, Page 52

Wednesday and Thursday for Weddings.

THESE DAYS SEEM TO BE MOST POPULAR.

" Choose carefully," counsels a popular book on matrimony, " not only the season, but the day." Which, then, are the lucky days for marriages? Here the guide to bliss fails us. All that we are given to direct us is an old rule — Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all. . Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses, Saturday no luck at all —

which is obsolete. Whatever may be the " lucky " days at present, certainly they are not Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Will official statistics help us to decide the weighty problem? Falling back on them, we find' that Saturday and Sunday, closely followed by Monday, are the most popular days for weddings, while Friday, as might be expected, is the least favoured. More than once, to the writer's knowledge, matrimonial negotiations have been broken oft" at the tenth hour because a potential bridegroom has insisted upon being married on a Friday. An actual case happened recently, when* a cotton operative, more from motives of economy than to flout superstition — a Friday marriage involves little " lost time," since Saturday and Sunday follow — usurped the bride-elect's prerogative in the matter. This ungallant and indefensible attitude led to "words," and the upshot was that the engagement was terminated.

In Scotland,. however, Friday appears to be the most popular day in the week for marriages. At all events, nearly 50 per cent, of the weddings in a recent year were celebrated on that day. Very few seem to take place on Saturday and practically none at all on Sunday. But, while these two days are those most favoured in England for taking the plunge into the waters of matrimony, it does not follow that they are considered the most "lucky." Expediency is the great factor in the choice of days. Workers marry, as they do othei things, with an eye to loss of earnings by absence from the factory or the shop. It used to be fairly common for mill operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire to leave work, go to church and get married, and then return straightway to the day's toil. Only a few months since a prosperous cotton spinner — a self-made man — went from his office to church in his business suit. There his bride, plainly attired, awaited him. After the two had been united, they parted with as little demonstration and fuss as if they had been one for 20 years — &he to go to her new home, he to take up his correspondence. Where does the romance of matrimony come in here?

If this parsimony as regards " time " is not so prevalent as it was, none the less does it still exist. In many cases, indeed, it is compulsory. Hence the popularity of Saturday and Sunday for marriages. It is partly from this cause, moreover, that so many weddings take place at holi-

day times. More couples are united across the border on December 31, the eve of the greatest festival in the Scots' calendar, than on any other day of the year. Since our brothers from beyond the Tweed have introduced certain of their customs into England, New Year marriages have also become popular, though not, of course, to the same degree, in parts of the south.

On the last day of 1898, five marriages were celebrated at one church in a manufacturing district, and three of the bridegrooms were brothers. The difference in age between the oldest and the youngest was more than 10 years. Another curious circumstance was that the trio of brides, although not in any way related, had lived in the same street all their lives, gone to the same school, worshipped at the same church, and worked at the same mill.

We in England have no day quite corresponding to tfie Scots' December 31 for marriages ; several holidays are all popular for weddings. Christmas Day, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, August Bank Hiliday — this, is something like the order in which, the great festivals rank in popular favour for the celebration of matrimony. Other holidays are, however, favourite wedding days. For instance, the general prejudice against Good Friday is sunk at Easter, many marriages taking place in some towns on Good Friday. In one years the average number of Friday weddings in Manchester was 2.18, whereas last Good Friday no fewer than 36 were celebrated. In Lancashire, again, numbers of couples are united on every day in Whit week, Friday included. The weddings in some districts are at the beginning of the week, and in others at the end, accuding to when the mills stop. Wherefore statistics are at best but a sorry guide to the days that are lucky for marrying. The million do not get wedded when they like ; they get wedded when there is the least drain on the pocket. Were there always absolute freedom of choice in the matter, official returns would probably show that Wednesday and Thursday are generally considered the " lucky " days. There is, at any rate, a widespread belief to this effect.

" I have frequently noticed," said a clergyman, asked for his opinion on the subject, " that either Wednesday or Thursday is in the generality of cases selected for the wedding day. When, for statutory reasons, I have not been able to marry a couple on the day fixed upon, and have suggested the following Saturday or Monday, they have generally put off- the event fox- a week. The same thing has happened in my experience in other districts. I have probably had more weddings on Wednesday and Thursday than on all the other days of the week put together, excepting those celebrated at holiday times."

In this view a coach proprietor concurred. He said that in the spring all his vehicles were sometimes engaged for Wednesday and Thursday for weeks ahead. In fact, he often had to decline orders for those days. The sovereign will of the people, therefore, seems to have decided that Wednesday and Thursday are the " lucky " days for weddings. So that the old rhyme still has some potency, after all.