The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-01-23
NIAIDENS OF BRITTANY
PREPARE TO CELEBRATE
WEDDING WEEK.

Fortunate is that tourist who spends
the next two weeks in quaint old Brit
tany, for he will be able to witness
the many joyous and odd cerern onials
that are a part of the celebration of
wedding week. In most Breton
towns it has long been and still is the
custom to begin married life during
the week or two Immediately preced-
ing Lent. wedding Weeks is the
great carnival season of the year IN
Brittany, and is accompanied by feasts.
professions and merry-making. This
week the brides-to-be will put the fin
ishing touches on their tresseaux,
while the bridegrooms will complete
the furnishing of the humble nests.
The costumes of the Breton brides are
little different from those worn by
other maidens on similar occasions
century ago. Full fashioned gowns.
with CAPS collars apd streamers of
snowy white. adorn the brides, while
the bridegrooms put on their holiday
attire of short jacket, full trousers,
brilliant sash and flat-crowned hat.
The purchase of the wedding ring is
made the occasion of gala process
sion, and wandering musicians gather
from far and near to take part in
these parades, assured that the happy
bridegroom will welcome their parti-|
cipation and will be as liberal as his
means will permit.
Each day of wedding week large
crowds gather in front of the church
to wait for the procession of brides.
The maidens enter the sacred edifice
together, and the men who are to
claim brides soon follow. Then the
relatives and friends of the couple file
in to witness the wholesale wedding.
After the ceremony the newly weds
scatter to their new homes, where
feasts are served, followed by dancing
and other festivities. Brides and
bridegrooms come in for much badi-
mage, often of character that will
not permit description. Eighteenth
century frankness in discussing the
marriage relations persists in Brittany,
which is little changed In any other
respect. The wedding customs of the
Bretons have been well described by
De Maupassant ana other writer's of
fiction, and have been the subject of
many risque tales. In the larger
towns as many as a hundred weddings
a day are performed during the week
devoted to the happy elimination OF
Breton romances.
Today is the centenary of the death
of George CIymer. a signer Of the
American Declaration of Independz
ence. He was born in Philadelphia
in 1879. In 1775 he was made joint
treasurer of Pennsylvania with MIR.
Hillegas. Following the outbreak Of
L1G EGHQ4QI1OA dSS1 GAQS11SIA dAlAOI-
ity, when Congress fled to Baltimore,
Clymer was one of the commissj oners
left in Philadelphia to look after the
public interests. Later he became a
commissioner to treat with the In
dams, and In n 7SeEs The assisted in orr
ganizing the Bank of North America.
After the United States had achieved
its independence Clymer for a time
resided in New Jersey, but later re-
turned to his native State and was
elected to the legislature. In 1877 he
was a member of the convention that
framed the national constitution Of
the United States. and was elected to
the first Congress herd under it. He
was a collector of the excise duties
which, in 1871, led to the famous
swhiskey insurrection." He was one
of the founders of the Pennsylvania
Agricultural Society, the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts and the Penn
syIvania Bank CIymer's long and
busy career ended at MorrisvilIe, Pa.
where he died on Jan. %, 1913.