Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1883 — Primitive Jewish Weddings. [ARTICLE]

Primitive Jewish Weddings.

The primitive Jews do not appear to have performed any definite ceremonies at the wedding, yet they had some sort of a ratification of the vows of thfi espousal. The day before the wedding the bride took a bath, which then, as in more modern times, was a somewhat formal procedure. The bride-groom on his wedding day wa3 arrayed in his most gorgeous attire, wearing on his head either a turban or gold or silver crown, and sometimes one of flowers or leaves. He was also highly perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. The bride wore a long veil which covered ler from head to foot, indicative of her submission to her husband, a girdle and a chaplet of gold or silver. The time of the ceremony was generally in the evening, and the bridegroom, accompanied by his friends, and musicians and torch-bearers, went to her house and brought her and her party to his own or his father’s house, amid shouts and sounds of joy. At the bridegroom’s house a feast was given, after which followed music and dancing, the male guests dancing around the bridegroom and the women around the bride. When a virgin married, parched corn was circulated among the guests to suggest the hope of fruitfulness and plenty. The last act of the J ewish wedding ceremony was leading the woman, still veiled, to the bed-chamber, where a canopy, sometimes a bower of roses and myrtles, was awaiting.—Cincinnati Enquirer.