Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1885 — Bridal Charms and Omens. [ARTICLE]

Bridal Charms and Omens.

The Romans were very superstitions about marrying in May and February. The 14th of May has always been considered in England peculiarly unlucky for brides. Why, tradition sayeth not. In the Orkney Isles the bride selects an evening for her wedding when there is a full moon and a flowing tide. In Scotland the last day of the year is considered lucky, and if the moon chances to be full that night the bride’s prospects in life are supposed to be brilliant. Sunday is a great favorite with brides in some parts of England and Ireland. The French demoiselle, however, thinks the first Friday in the month particularly fortunate for her nuptials. In Yorkshire, when the bride is about to cross her father’s threshold, after returning from church, a plate containing a lew small pieces of cake is thrown from an jipper window by one of her male relatives. If the plate is broken she will be bappv, but if not there is every prospect that she will get her share of this' world’s misery. In Sweden the bride on her way back -from churcli has pieces of bread in her pockets. These are thrown away on her road to her home, to insure her good luck. It is ill-fortune to the one who picks up these crumbs. If the bride lose her slipper on the 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 misfortune will ensue if a bridegroom stand, if only for a moment, at the junction of cross-roads on his wedding morn. In England, also, it is thought a sign of bad luck if the bride fails to shed tears on her wedding-day, or if she turn back to take a last look at herself in her wedding toilet.

Among the English lasses it is bad luck fqr a bride to look back or go back when once she has started for church, or to marry dressed in green, or let the ceremony go on while there is an open grave in the church-yard. When the bridesmaids undress the bride they must be sure to throw away all the pins, to make sure of good for themselves, as well as for her. If a single pin be left in the bride’s raiment, wo unto her. And if a bridesmaid should keep one of them she will not be married before Whitesuntide, or the Easter following. Therefore bridesmaids in England are not given to preserving the pins from bridal costumes. If the bridal party venture off the land they must go by steam, and the bride, to make certain of good luck, must, on the happy day, wear “something old and something new, something gold and something blue.” If she sees a strange cat on that day, she will take it as an omen that she is to be very happy; and if on the morning of her wedding day she steps 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 the bedside, and steps from one to the other on rising from her slumber on her wedding-morn. On leaving her home, and on starting from the church to return, she is very careful to step out with her right foot first, and is careful not to address her husband after they are wedded without first calling him by his full name. To break the wedding ring is a sign that the wearer will soon be a widow. And there are fifty others of the same sort which are shared by our young women, who carefully follow many ot these mummeries in the weddings of to-day. Though they be nineteenthcentury maids and graduates of colleges of high standing, they are not proof against the superstitions of brides

from time immemorial.

— Anon.