Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/226

 MARRIAGE 204 Church forbidding weddings between Roga- tion and Whit Sunday, so that, when the Church prohibited weddings during the chief part of May, pious and nervous folk originated the famihar Une : " Marry in May> and you'll rue the day." And, undoubtedly, it must be admitted that May unions do not, on the whole, prove especially blessed. Lent, of course, was another forbidden period, as it has always been considered that a time of penitence and fasting is quite unsuitable to the gladness and festivity of a wedding. June, however, has always been considered the month for weddings, and Roman maidens preferred it to any other, because it was the name-month of Juno, the goddess who took love matters and all feminine interests especially under her protection, and was therefore considered the " Bona Dea " of weddings indeed. In pre- Reformation times there were only thirty- two weeks out of the fifty-two in which either the pious or superstitious could marry in spiritual or mental ease, unless (in the case of the former) they purchased a special dispensation, because the Church forbade marriage between Advent and Hilary (January 13th), and from the commencement of Lent till eight days after Easter, and again between Rogation and Trinity. The following is from an entry in the register of Beverley (St. Mary), November 26th, 164 1 : " When Advent comes do thou refraine. Till Hillary set ye free againe ; Next Septuagesima saith thee nay, But when Lowe Sunday comes thou may ; But at Rogation thou must tarry, Till Trinite shall bid thee marry." In a delightful old almanac for the year 1559. by Lewis Vaughan, made for " the merydian of Gloucestre," the following quaint notice appears : " The tymes of weddinges when it begynneth and endeth. Jan. 14, wedding begin. Jan. 21, weddinge goth out. April 3, wedding be. April 29, wedding goth out. May 22, wedding begyn." And from still another old source — the Almanac Galen, 1642 — we learn : "Times prohibiting marriage this year : From the 27 of November till January 13, From Februarie 6 untill April 18, From May 16 untill June 6." This still further reduces the allotted weeks to twenty out of the entire year. But since those days neither Act of Parliament or Canon of the Church has forbidden weddings at any special season of the year, and it is really good feeling which precludes Advent and Lent and superstition which avoids May. The Day of the Week Having chosen the month, next the day of the week must be decided upon, and here we find : " Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses. And Saturday no luck at all." Sunday, which in Elizabethan times was the day of days for weddings, now is never regarded as a suitable day. This may be accounted for by two reasons — the influence of the Puritans, and also one's natural sense of decorum that the Sunday is a day for worship rather than weddings. As the authors of the " Directory for Public Worship " (1644) persuasively say, " We advise it be not on the Lord's Day." In Ireland no colleen dares to marry in Lent or on any public fast, nor cares to on Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension- tide, or Wliit Sunday, in memory of the Canon of the Irish Protestant Episcopal Church, which in 1639 forbade weddings on those occasions. In Scotland the lassies greatly favour New Year's Day, with the idea of commencing their newly married life at the commence- ment of the New Year. Others, on the other hand, choose the last day of the Old Year, so that they may " ring out the old, ring in the new " together, and also avoid a super- stition, which prevails in some parts of Scotland, that it is unlucky to have your banns called in one year, or one quarter of the year, and be married in another. 7o be continued. THE HONEYMOON Continued from f>age ji, Part i T© PACIi FOR THE HOHEYMOON By "MADGE" (^Mrs. HUMPHRY) The Travelling Wardrobe— Dresses Needed by the Bride "While A-way — Trifles that Complete Happiness In the first part of Every Woman's Encyclopaedia many suggestions for winter honeymoons were made, and when the choice of locality has been made, the packing of suitable clothing has to b3 considered. ' The length of the honeymoon varies so much that its duration has to be considered in the matter of packing. Suppose that a fortnight should be arranged for the trip, the amount of luggage need not be very great. At the same time,