Wedding Favors
|
|
Wedding Night
   
|
Baby Boomers: Will They Be Able To Afford Their Parents?
Do you worry about whether your aging parents have their "affairs in order?" You should. After all, youre the one who will have to pay .....
WEDDING NIGHT? SOME INTERESTING RITUALS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.Do you worry about whether your aging parents have their "affairs in order?" You should. After all, youre the one who will have to pay .....
Weddings are based upon traditions and rituals, reflecting the culture and history of the couple, to be wed. Throughout the planet, weddings are celebrated as meaningful life affirming events, shared by family and friends, according to the rituals prevalent within their culture. Similarly, the wedding night poses a diversity of tradition based activities and rituals, varying widely according to the culture of the newly married couple. Here are some activities, planned by the new couple's family and friends, to prepare for the wedding night celebration, around the world:
An established American custom, is based upon an old Celtic tradition of escaping on the wedding night. Typically, the American bride and groom, dash off in a car embellished with rattling old tin cans, affixed to the vehicle's rear bumper. The noisy tailgate, rattles behind the newlyweds, as they steal away to their secret honeymoon retreat, as soon as the wedding celebration formalities end, for a night of connubial euphoria!
Upsetting the newlywed couple's wedding night plans, is a tradition that derives from Gaelic culture. Initially, the ritual involved the bridesmaids dressing the bride for bed, while inviting the bridegrooms to each give her a good night kiss. This would be one of a series of pranks, designed to keep the groom from his new wife, upsetting the honeymoon activity, ahead. They'd make noise and sneak a look at the couple, all the while, drinking until drunkenness eschewed.
The couple finally gets the privacy that a wedding night deserves, when the guest were finally to drunk to continue, leaving them in peace. This activity is the precursor to the tradition of sneaking away to the honeymoon spot, now widely practiced, by today's brides and grooms.
Scotland is the emanating point for other wedding night rituals that include dousing the marriage bed with water, before use....imparting a bit of luck to the newlyweds; or, sleeping in the old barn, on the wedding night. Often, a newlywed Celtic couple, would observe a tradition that demanded that they stay the first week, in the bride's parents home, before setting off for their new location.
A practice call "Chiverie", known in the US as "Shivaree", is derived from an old French and German wedding night ritual. The concept is similar to the Celtic tradition, in that, family and friends engage in disturbing the honeymoon night with raucous noises and clamor, outside the couple's sleeping quarters. They can create quite a stir for the newlyweds with wild pranks like hiding alarm clocks all over the room, spreading food on the honeymoon bed or filling the space with helium filled balloons, to name a few!
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told
When people think about great love stories, more often than not theyll think about Romeo and Juliet. These, of course, were no more than .....
Today, we're accustomed to the wedding night ritual that starts with the groom carrying the bride over the threshold to the honeymoon suite. This custom is an offshoot of a Roman superstition that determined that if a bride tripped, upon entering the house for the first time, it was a sign of bad luck. To avoid the possibility of this occurring,the male friends of the groom used to carry the bride through the door, for the first time. A tradition that they groom now handles by himself, but one that continues to endure today.When people think about great love stories, more often than not theyll think about Romeo and Juliet. These, of course, were no more than .....
Virginity is still valued in Benin, West Africa, and is to be preserved until the wedding night. When the bride's mother receives confirmation that her daughter is a virgin, at the wedding night's inception, she presents her with a cash reward. The proof is the bloodstained bed sheets, which are inspected the morning after the honeymoon night. Mothers have even been known to hang the bloodstained garments, out of a window, to bear witness to the daughter's virginity, to the entire community.
The phoenix and dragon, Chinese symbols used to ward off baby luck or evil spirits, are images incorporated into candles, used during, wedding night rituals. Goblets, intertwined with red ribbons, held in interlocking arms, are used to drink wine, as the wedding toast. While half raw dumplings, the Chines symbol of prosperity, will be eaten by the bride.
One last wedding night ritual, notable in it's tradition, hails from Marquesasian, (Polynesia). On this island, brides engage sexually, with all of the male guests, before her encounter with the groom, which happens last.
Although we're not suggesting that you incorporate any of these traditions into your wedding night ritual, they do make for interesting conversation...don't you think?
Game-Set-Match
Direct Answers - Column for the week of July 21, 2003
I don't know whether to call it jealousy or insecurity. My husband and I have .....
Direct Answers - Column for the week of July 21, 2003
I don't know whether to call it jealousy or insecurity. My husband and I have .....