Marriage and Beyond

It is interesting to note that wedding superstitions are not unique to our native land. Other countries acknowledge these and even practice them in this day and age.

Some wedding superstitions try to satisfy the curiosity of girls about who will marry them, and when. One belief says that if a man wipes his hands on a woman’s apron, he is going to fall in love with her. This is because he will have wiped some of her sweat on to his hands, and it will have a magical effect upon him. Sounds a lot like “gayuma” (love potion), if you ask me.
Other superstitions try to ward off bad luck from the new marriage like: engaged couples shouldn’t give one another handkerchiefs; a bride shouldn’t make her own wedding dress; a wedding dress shouldn’t be worn before the wedding day itself, and the bride should not look at herself in the mirror as she wears it. These may all sound ridiculous in themselves, but these were like rules of the thumb back in the olden days.

The choice of wedding day is important: not the bride’s birthday, and preferably not in May (because Maia, after whom the month is named, is the Greek goddess of the elderly). And the gown the bride wears is important too. If she uses her mother’s wedding dress, she will become especially lucky. But she should also wear ’something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” as the old adage would say.

Nearly all of the traditional wedding customs have some superstitious reason behind them. The throwing of rice, confetti or birdseed, for instance, which was supposed to ensure that they would produce lost of children and never go hungry.

It’s really up to us if we still choose to recognize these beliefs or consider weeding superstitions altogether instead.

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