WEDDING IN A FOREST

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

WEDDING IN A FOREST

NATURE JOINS IN. = . An unusual wedding cremony look place not long ago in a far-away corner of Sweden, a ceremony which lost nothing of its solemnity by being held in a forest instead of a church, with a rock for an altar and the music of windswept pines in place of the organ. The bride and bridegroom were natives of Finnmarken, and they had waited patiently all through the winter for the pastor of Mora, to whose flock they belonged; to be able to visit their district. Spring came, and still the pastor found it impossible to spare the time for the long journey. It was agreed that the betrothed couple should meet him half' way, yet even' so both parties had 'a long and arduous journey before the meeting could be accomplished, and one can imagine the young ’people’s trepidation on the way, lest they or the clergyman should miss the place of meeting. However, everything passed off without a hitch: the minister was there, not a single wedding guest had stayed away, nor had the best man forgotten the ring. Nature held her breath to listen to the solemn gospel words which had never before been uttered in that spot, and when it came to the singing of the hymns the birds joined in, as if hey knew that, however different the sound, the spirit animating it was one of their own.