Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-26

garded as a night of sure diyination in love
making. All kinds Of devices have, therefore.
| oeen resorted to at this season, and In the
| north OF England many superstitions still linger
on. where this festival Is known as .'nutcrack
night. from nuts forming prominent feature
! In the evening feast.
| MARRIAGE
In selecting the time for the marriage cere-
mony precautions Of every Kind have generally
been taken to avoid an unlucky month and day
| for the knot to be tied Indeed. the old Roman
1 notion that May marriages are unlucky survives
to this day in England. striking example as
Mr.. Tyler has pointed out in his Primitive Cub
| ture. of how an idea, the meaning of which has
| perlShed for ages, may continue to exist simply
| because it has existed. That May with us is not
a month for marrying may easily be seen any
year from the list of weddings i'm the English
| newspapers. the popular belief being summed up
in the familiar proverb, Marry in May and you'll
| rue the iay"
On the other hand. June IL a highly popular
month Tor marrying. one reason perhaps being
lGat the earth is then clothed in her summer
beauty. aud that this is a season OF plenty.
Equal Importance has been attached 10y some
10 Inc day OF the week on which the marriage is
performed Thus. Friday. on account of lis be-
ing regarded as an inauspicious and evil day for
| the commencement of any kind of enterprise is
generally avoided. few brides being found bold
enough to run the risk of mourning bad luck
! from being married on a day of i'll omen In
]
| popular day for marriages. although. as Mr.
Jeafireson. I'm his amusing history of BRIDES
| and Bridals. remarks. "A fashionable wedding
celebrated on the Lords day in London or any
| part OF England. would now days he denounced
by religious people of all Christian parties as an
| outrageous exhibition of impety But in our
| feudal times. and long after the reformation
| Sunday was. of all days of the week the favor
lite one for marriages. Long after the theaters
| mad been closed on Sundays. the day of rest was
| the chief day for weddings with Londoncrs Of
| every social class"
THE ORIGIN OF THE WEDDING CANE.
The wedding cake. without which no wedding
would be considered complete, is evidently a
survival of the symbolical corn ears originally
worn by the bride. and which i'm after times
were made into cakes and sprinkled upon the
brides head. In course of time these cakes
We're 10y degrees converted into one large mass
enriched with almond paste: and that the ingre-
! dents of a wedding cake i'm the Seventeenth
| Century did not differ materially from one at
the present day may be gathered from Her1ick
! who says:
| ''This day, my julia thou must make
For mistress bride, the wedding cake;
kneed but the dough, and il Will be
To paste of almonds turned 10y thee;
Or kiss IL thou but once or twice.
And for the bride cake therel be spice"
Indeed. corn in one form or another has always
entered into the marriage ceremony. a practice
/ which. as Sir John Lubbock i'm his "Oripin of
!
| among remote SavageS or semi-cyZed people
| it would be difficult to enumerate the many
superstitiOns, beliefs. and usages that have at
| different times clustered round the wedding
cake, some of which are as popular as ever.
Curious marriage customs are to be found in
all parts of the world. and particularly i'm Eng
| land.
| In some parts of Kent it was formerly CUSTOM
| airy to strew the pathway to the church of the
bridal couple. not with flowers. but with EN-
bens of the bridegroom trade carpenter
Tor instance. walked on shavings. a paperhanger
on slips of paper. a blacksmith on pieces of old
IRON. and so on. In some parts of Durham the
| bridal party was. in DAYS gone by generally
escorted to church by men armed with guns.
which they fired again and again in honor of the
| festive occasion. In Scotland there was an
amusing custom. called Greeting the bride
| groom" basket or creel was filled with heavy
| stones and fixed to the brideeroOm's shoulder,
and with this burden he was obliged to run about
until his wife unfastened the creel.
| DEATH AND BURIAL.
The superstitiOns associated with the last
stage of human life are most numerousand that
this should be so is not surprising when it is
| considered how, from the earliest time a GER
tain dread has been attached to DEATH not only
on account Of its awful mysteriousness, but
owing to its being the crisis of an entirely new
phase of the souls existence Foremost among
popular omens is the bowling of dog at night
| NHtCn WIlle not COnIlneu To any
one country, appears to have been almost as well
| known in ancient times as at the present day.
! The bowling of the dog is ascribed BY some to
its keen sense of the Odor of approaching NOR
tai dissolution; whereas Others affirm that this
| animal can see the spirits which hover round the
house OF sickness, ready at the moment of death
to bear away the soul of the departed one to its
distant home. In Aryan mythology the dog is
said to see CHESTS, and in Germany at the pre-
sent day. dog bowling before a house portends
~ n n mr. Tr,u -ag., "a
that horses. too, have the gift of seeing spirits.
Carriage horses. il is said have been known to
display every sign OF the utmost terror although
the occupants of the carriage could see no
cause for alarm. Such an occurrence is consd-
cred highly OminOuS, and thought to forbode
that "A funeral will soon pass by that way bear
ing to his resting place some person not dead at
the time of the horses fright
Another common omen of death is the hover
ing OF birds around house, and their tapping
against the window pane. Among the death
preSaEng birds may be mentioned the raven
the crowand the swallow The growing of the
cock, also, at the dead of night is regarded as
equally omnOus.
Referring to death itself there is a widespread
belief that deaths mostly occur during the ebf-
ing of the tide, superstition to which Charles
Dickens has SO tOuchingly alluded in David
Copperield." While the honest hearted Mr..
Peggotty sat by the bedside Of poor Barkis. and
watched lifcs flame gradually growing DINNER
along the coast except when the tides pretty
nigh out. They can't be born until it's pretty
nigh in. Not properly borntiIl flood. He's going
out with the tde-he's agoing outWith the tide.
It's ebb at half arter three. slack water hall an
hour If he lives till it turns, he'll hold his own
till past the food, and go out with the next
tide" And after many hours watching. lit
being low water. he went out with the tide"
Many have superstitious feeling that it is a
great misfortune, nay. even judgment. not to
die in bed. According to another popular
fancy a person cannot die comfortably under
the cross beam of a house. Again. the Interval
| between death and burial has generally been
associated with various superstitious fears and
practices. Thus. soon as the corpse is laid
out there is still widespread custom of placing
plate of salt upon the breast. the reason being
no doIAt to prevent the body swelling, although
there is belief that it acts a charm against
any attempt on the part of evil spirits to dis
turb the body. Pennant tells us that formerly
in Scotland, ''the corpse being stretched on a
board and covered with coarse linen wrapper.
the friends laid on the breast of the deceased a
wooden platter, containing small quantity of
salt and earth. separate and unmixed: the earth
an emblem of the corruptible body, the salt as
an emblem of the Immortal spirit" Mr. Napier.
in his Folk Lore of the West Scotland" points
hn4v.