River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-10-19
Superstition About Love.


From the earliest times no event in
human life has been associated with a
more extensive folk lore than mar
riage. Beginning with love divinations,
these are of every conceivable kind,
the anxious maiden apparently having
left no stone unturned in her anxiety
to ascertain her lot in the marriage
state. Some cut the common brake or
fern just above the root to ascertain
the iEitials of the future husbands
name. Again, nuts and apples are
very favorite love tests. The mode of
procedure is for girl to place on the
bars of CRATE nut, repeating this in
cantation: h
II he loves me, pop and fly;
If he hates me, live and die.
Great is the dismay if the anxious
face OF the inquirer gradually perceives
the nut, instead of making the hoped
for pop, die and make no sign. One
means of divination is to throw lady
bird in the air, and repeating mean
while the subjoined couplet:
Fly away east and fly away west,
Show mo where lives the one like best
Should this little insect chance to fly
in the direction of the house where
the loved-one resides, it is regarded as
most favorable omen.
Another species of love divination
once observed consisted in obtaining
five bay leaves, four of which the
anxious maiden pinned at the four cor
ners of her pillow, and the fifth in the
middle. If she was fortunate enough
to dream of her lover, it was q sure
sign that he would be married to her
in the course of the year.
Friday had been held good day of
the week for love cmens: and in Nor
folk the following lines are repeated
three nights successfully, as on the last
one it is believed tina: the young lady
will dream of her future husband:
Tonight, tonight is Friday night
Lay me down in dirty white;
Dream whom my husband is to be,
And lay my children by my side,
II I'm TO We to be his bride.
In selecting the time for the mar
riage ceremony 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 notion that the May marriages
are unlucky survives to this day in
England. June is q highly popular
month. Friday, on account of it being
regarded as an inauspicious evil day
| for the commencement of any kind of
enterprise, is generally avoided.
In days gone by Sunday appears to
have been popular day for marriages.
1t is, above all things, necessary that
l Il oh oh tla do
it is deemed absolutely necessary by
very many that she should weep on
her wedding day, if it be only few
tears; the omission of such an act
being considered,ominous other future
happiness.
| In Sussex, bride on her return
home from church is often robbed OF
all her pins about her dress by the
single women present, from the belief
taat whoever possesses one of them
will be married in the course of a
year, and evil fortune will sooner or
later inevitably overtake the bride
who keeps even one pin used in the
marriage toilet,
"Flinging the stocking" was an old
marriage custom in England. The
Young men took the brides stockings
and the girls those of the bridegroom,
| each of whom, sitting at the foot Of
the bed, threw the stockings over thei,
heads, endeavoring to make it fall on
that of the bride or her spouse. II
the bridegroom's stockings thrown by
the girls, fell upon the bridegroom
head, it was sign that they them
selves would soon be married, and sim
liar luck was derived from the falling
of the brides stockings thrown by the
young men. There is a superstitious
notion in some places that when the
bride retires to rest on her wedding
night her bridesmaids should lay Eel
stockings across, as this act is supposed
to guarantee her future prosperity IL
the marriage state.