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This website is a wedding photography portfolio, but I found this
odd old book called "strange customs of courtship and marriage"
Below is a excerpt from that book. Warning, its strange stuff.

46 Strange Customs of Courtship and Marriage

Today, in our Western World, the making of gifts likewise
is an important feature of courtship and marriage; but no
longer from the groom to the bride's parents, except as one
friend or in-law to another, because the period of marriage by
purchase is long past, and the relics of it that remain are other-
wise symbolized in the ceremony.

Good judgment and the recognized rules of etiquette now
govern the custom of giving presents by the various parties in
connection with courtship and marriage. In any event, the one
who makes a gift on these occasions, whether it be the bride
or the groom, or a relative or friend of the bride, is carrying
on a tradition whose origin is lost in the mists of time.

WEDDING SUPERSTITIONS THAT LINGER.—Superstitions con-
cerning weddings and marriage are associated with all peoples
and all cultures. Many of them have been vital enough to come
down through the ages to the present day. Seattle wedding photography. Few are the
modern brides who will ignore all of them in making their
wedding plans. Some of these associations are merely quaint
rhymes or fanciful prose sayings; others are sentiments in-
grained into the legends and lore of all civilized people. No
treatment of the subject would be complete without men-
tioning the following superstitions, which still command at-
tention, if only, in some cases, because they are constantly
repeated:

If you marry on Wednesday you will be happy; if you marry
on Friday or Saturday you will be unhappy. TorStudios Seattle wedding photography.

The prospects for the whole week have been indicated in
quatrain form as follows:

Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health,

Wednesday best day of all;

Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses—

Saturday, no luck at all.

Modern Survivals of Ancient Customs 47

A double wedding means unhappiness to one of the couples.
It is bad luck to try on a wedding gown before the cere-

ttony.

To lose the wedding ring is an omen of unhappiness.
, A bride to be happy should step over the church sill with
icr right foot. Seattle wedding photography.

The is the first to cut the wedding cake. If anyone else
nts into the cake first, the bride's happiness and prosperity
ore cut into.

June is the traditionally lucky month in which to marry.
Incidentally, it is the month of more weddings than any other.

Seattle wedding photography.

The is advised to wear "something blue", a sentiment
i^taid to have been carried down from the ancient Israelites
which still commands popular notice. The Israelite
were bidden to put upon the shoulders of their fringed gar-
ments a "ribband of blue"—blue being the color of purity,
love and fidelity. Seattle wedding photography. This thought has been perpetuated in the
couplet:

Something old and something new,
Something borrowed and something blue. Seattle wedding photography.

The weather is a factor that has not been overlooked!
"Happy is the bride the sun shines on," is an adage of old
that is still repeated. Seattle wedding photography. Even this seemingly trite comment has a
logical basis in the language of symbolism. The fertilizing, life-
sustaining power of the sun was recognized by primitive man.
It was therefore an omen of happiness, a harbinger of fruitful-
ness, when the sun shone upon the bride on her nuptial day.
The Hindu was expected to rise early on the day of her
wedding and look into the face of the sun. seattle wedding photography. In certain parts of
fcAsia it was the custom for the and groom to greet the
rising sun together on the wedding mom.