The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1866-07-05
Unlucky Wedding Days.

OuG IudG DCCGmUSt 10 tilC loNOAttO AAOhIh
in Scotland; but when the December
registers are looked into it is found
that, though the daily number of mar
riages during that month exceeds that
of all other months excepting June, it
is the last day of December 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 report attention was directed
to this striking popularity in the social
habits of the Scottish people, but the
Registrar was not then in possession Of
data sufficient to show the exact mag
nitude of the fact lie has now, how
ever, gone over the marriage registers
for series Of years, to procure some
tangible facts on this subject, and they
are extremely curious At present
(says the Registrar we tlatter ourselves
that the days of superstition have pass
ed away 1t is not 50 however, with
the Scottish people, as these registers
avouch. No Scotchman will begin any
kind of work on Saturday if he can
avoid it, because he has the supersti-
tious belief that he will never live to
finish it. For the same reason no
Scotchman will marry on Saturday;
it is with him an "unlucky day." and
he breads that one or other of the
parties to the marriage will not live the
year, or, if they out-live the year, that
they will have no family. According
ly, as a general rule, no marriages occur
in Scotland on Saturday among natives
of Scotland. On Sundays, also, no
marriages take place: SO that the mar
rying days in Scotland are limited to
five weekly, or from 20 to 23 in each
month. While 48 marriages occurred
during each marrying day Of May, 81
in April, 81 in October, 81 in Septem-
ber, SO in March, 30 in February, and
G3 in January, they rose to 1O4 daily in
November, to III daily during % of
the marrying days in December, to 142
daily during the marrying days of June,
but to the enormous number of ,083
during the last of December. Here,
then, we have the very singular fact
ascertained that tho last day of the year
is such fayorite for marrying with the
people of Scotland that a full twentieth
of the marriages during the year were
contracted on that day. This, howev-
er, is not q casual occurrence, but re-
ours year after year with regularity
even in the numbers which is truly sur
prising. Thus, on going over the
marriage register for series of years,
it was found that when the 1st day of
December fell on the Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, the
numbers who annually married on the
lst day of December only varied from
1000 to 1890, so that the average
number of marriages on every 3lst day
of December, when it fell on the above
days of the week, was ,O5j. But all
this is changed when the last day of
December falls on a Saturday. The
Saturday superstition, as to its being an
unlucky day, outweighs 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 regis
ter virtually remains blank, in so far
as the natives Of Scotland are concerned,
In 1859, when the 3lst of December
fell on Saturday, only SO marriages
were contracted instead Of ,055, and
these chiefly persons not natives Of
Scotland. The Scottish people had in
that case anticipated the 3lst and con
tracted their usual 1855 marriages on
the 3Oth of the month 1t is strongly
suspected that the same singular prac-
tice prevails in Sweden, for in that
country even greater excess of mar,
riagcs takes place in December than in
Scotland. But the official tables and
reports do not give us the means oI
determining that point with certainty