Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-06-06
UnIucky WeddIng DAYS.

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The detailed annual report of the Reg
istrar-General for Scotland points out
! that December is the faVorite marriage
month in Scotland; but when the De-
cember registers are looked into it is
found that though the daily number Of
marriages during that month exceeds that
of all other months excepting June, it Is
the last day of December that is the pub
| lie pet, for on it alone are celebrated one
! twentieth of all the marriages which take
place during the year. In last years re-
port attention was directed to this strik-
ing popularity in the social habits of the
Scottish people, but the Registrar was
not then in possession of data sufficient
to show the exact magnitude of the fact
He has now, however, gone over the
marriage registers for a series of years, to
procure some tangible facts on this SUBJ
ject, and they are extremely curious. At
present (ssys the Registrar) we hatter
ourselves that the days of superstition
have passed away. 1t is not so, however,
with the Scottish people, as these regis
ters aYouch. No Scotchman will begin
any kind of work on Saturday if he can
avoid it, because he has the superstitious
belief that he will never live to finish it.
For the same reason no Scotchman will
marry on Saturday; it il with him "an
lucky day, and he breads that one or the
other of the parties to the marriage will
not live the year, W if they out-liVe the
year, that they will have no family. Ae-
cordingly, as a general rule, no marriag-
es occur in Scotland on Saturday among
natives Of Scotland. On Sundays also no
marriages take place; so that the marry
ing days in Scotland are limited to I'VE
weekly, or from 20 to % in each month.
While AZ marriages occurred during each
marrying day of May, 81 in April, 50 in
October, 81 in September, 48 in March,
60 in February, and GO in January, they,
rose to 104 daily in November, to-
III daily during the marrying days in De-
cember, to l42 daily during the marrying
days of June, but to the enormous num-
Der of 1,083 during the last of December.
Here, then, we have the very singular
fact ascertained that the last day of the
year is such faVorite for marrying with
the people of Scotland that full twen-
tieth of the marriages during the year
were contracted on that day. This, how
ever, is not a casual occurrence, bat re-
ours year after year with regularity
even in numbers which is truly surpris-
ing. Thus on going over the marriage
registers for a series of years, it was
found that when the 31st day Of Decem-
er fell on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednes-
day Thursday or Friday, the numbers
who annually married on the 1st day of
December only varied from ], ,020 to ], ,09O,
so that the average number of marriages
on every 3Ist day of December, when it
fell on the above days of the week, was
LOSS. Butall this is changed when the
last day of December falls on Saturday.
The Saturday superstition, as to its being
an unlucky day, outweigs all fondness for
the last day of the year as day OF mar
riage; so that when, in the revolution OF
the seasons, the last day of the year falls
on Saturday, the marriage register re-
mains a blank, in 80 far as the natives OF
Scotland are concerned. In 1859, when
the 3Ist of December fell on Saturday, |
only SO marriages were contracted in
stead of LOSS, and these chiefly not ma
tiyes of Scotland. The Scottish people |
had in that case anticipated the 3lst and
contracted their usual ], ,055 marriages on
the 30th of the month. 1t is strongly
suspected that the same singular prac-
tice prevails in Sweden, for in that
country even a greater excess of marriag-
es take place in December than in Scot.
land. But the official tables and reports
do not give US the means of determining
that point with certainty.-PaH Mall Ga
zeIts. Ir i...