The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-07-04
Strange Bridal Omens.
Brooklyn Eagle.

will not take place until early in June,
said society mother in chat with the
fashion editor, who had touched on
the subject of her daughters nuptials.
s'But it was supposed to be all fixed
for an earlier date" said the visitor.
$50 it was, long time in advance,
said the mother; s'but we discovered
that the wedding would come in Lent,
so we put it off,"
"Why?"
"Because it was in Lent. We couldn't
have marriage in Lent, you know"
"Why not ? There's no law against
marrying at any time, is there?'
"No; but it would be bad luck. "
"Who says so ?"
Everybody. Why, it's as old as
the hills-that superstition. Theyoung
women of over a century ago used to
say, Marry in Lent, be sure to repent"
"And the young girls of this century
keep on saying the same thing, it
seems"
eyes," said the mother of the pros
pective bride, otis superstition that
one does not like to acknowledge and
yet no one wants to run the risk of in
viting bad luck by violating the rule. "
The editress being started on the
track of woman's superstitions in re-
gard to marriages, made inquiries and
gathered surprising number of them.
No girl, for instance, is willing to
make Friday her wedding day.
Away back in the tragic times the
most of these maiden superstitions were
traced. The Romans were very super
stitious about marrying in May and
February. The 18th has always been
considered in England peculiarly un-
lucky for brides. Why, tradition say
eth not. In the Orkney Isles the bride
selects an evening for her wedding
when there is full moon and flow
ing tide. In Scotland the last day of
the year is considered lucky; the brides
prospects in life are supposed to be
brilliant.
Sunday is great favorite with brides
in some parts of England and Ireland.
The French demoiselle, however, thinks
the first Friday in the month particu-
larly fortunate for her nuptials.
In Sweden the bride on her way
back from church has pieces of bread
in her pockets. These she throws away
on her road to her home to insure her
good luck. 1t is ill-fortune to the one
who picks up these crumbs. If the
bride lose her slipper on her way from
church, she will lose all her troubles,
and the one who picks it up will gain
riches.
In every country it is an unhappy
omen for the wedding to be put off
when once the day has been fixed, and
in England it is believed great miSfor-
tune will ensue if a bridegroom stand,
if only for a moment, at the junction of
cross roads on his wedding morn. In
England, also, it is thought sign of
bad luck if the bride fails to shed tears
on her wedding day, or if she turn
back to take last look at herself in
her wedding toilet.
Among the English lasses it is bad
luck for bride to look back or go
back when once she has started for the
church, or to marry dressed in green,
or to let the ceremony go on while
there is an open grave in the church
yard. When the bridesmaids undress
the bride they must be sure to throw
away all the pins, to make sure OF good
luck to themselves as well as for her.
If single pin be left in the brides
raiment, woe unto her. And if
bridesmaid should keep one of them
she will not be married before Whitsun-
tide, or the Easter following. There
fore bridesmaids in England are not
given to preserving the pins from the
bridal costumes. If the bridal party
venture off the land they must go up
stream, and the bride, to make certain
of good luck, must, on the happy day,
wear "Something old and something
new, something gold and something
blue" If she sees strange cat or
that day she will take it as an omen
that she is to be very happy; and if on
the morning of her wedding day she
steps from her bed on something high
er than the floor, and then on some
thing higher still, she will rise in the
world from the time of her marriage.
To make sure of this, the maiden has a
chair and table at her bedside, and
steps from one to the other on rising
from her slumber on her wedding morn.
On leaving her home and on starting
from the chuch to return, she is very
careful to step out with her right foot
first, and is careful not to address hel
husband after they are wed without
first calling him by his full name. The
break of the wedding ring is sign that
the wearer will soon be widow.
And there are fifty others of the same
sort which are shared by our young
women, who carefully follow many o1
these mummeries in the weddings of to-
day. Though they be nineteen cen
tury maids, the graduates of colleges o.
high standing, they are not proof agains
the superstitions of brides from time
immemorial.