Marriage Whims.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 131, 5 December 1885, Page 6

Marriage Whims.

The Romans were very superstitious about marrying in May and February. The 14th has always been considered in .England peculiarly unlucky for brides. Why, tradition saith not. In the Orkney Isles the bride selects the evening for her ' wedding when ohere is a full moon and a flowing tide. In Scotland the last day of the year is considered lucky ; the bride's prospects in life are supposed to be brilliant. Sunday is a great favourite with brides in some parts of England and Ireland. The French demoiselle, however, thinks the first Friday in the month particuliarly fortunate for her nuptials. In Sweden the bride on her way back from church has pieces of bread in her pockets. These she throws away on her road to her home to insure her good luck. It is ill-fortune to the one who picks up thefe crumbs. If the bride lose her slipper on her way from church she will lose all her troubles, and the one who picks it up will gain riches. In every country it is an unhappy omen for the wedding to be put off when once the day has been fixed ; and in England it is believed great misfortunes will ensue if a bride groom stand, if only for a moment, at the jnnction of cross roads on his wedding morn. In England, also, it if thought a sign of bad luck if the bride fails to ehed tears on her wedding day, or if she turns back to take a last look at herself in her wedding toilet Among the English lassies it is bid luck for a bride to look back or go back when she has once startod for the church, or to marry dressed in green, or to let the ceremony go on while there is an open grave in the churchyard. When the bridesmaids undress the bride they must be sure to throw away all the pins, to make pure of good luck to themselves as well as for her. If a single pin be left in the bride'? raiment, woe unto her ; and if a bridesmaid should keep one of them she will not be married before Whitsuntide or the Easter following. Therefore bridesmaids in England are not given to preserving the pins from the bridal costume. If the bridal party venture off the land they must go up stream, and the bride, to make certain of good luck, must on that happy day wear '* Something old and something new, something gold and something blue." If she sees a Btrango cat that day ghe will take it as an omen that she ia to be very happy ; and if on the morning of her wedding; day she stops from her bed on something higher than the floor, and then on something higher still, she will rise in the world from the time of her marriage. To make sure of this, the maiden has a chair and a table at her bedside, and eteps from one to the other ou rising from her slumbers on her wedding morn. On leaving her home, and on starting from the church to return, she is vory careful to step out with her right foot first, and clio is careful not; to address her husband after they are wed without first calling him by his full name. The break of the wedding ring is a sign that the wearer will soon be a widow