Wenning's Wedding Tip Wednesday

Since it is finally October and getting close to Halloween we will be having fun with everything that is spooky and scary.  Have you ever wondered where the main wedding traditions originated from?  This month we will be talking about several different traditions and how there was a sinister start to them.  Here is the spooky truth about why newly weds have honeymoons.

The creation of the “honeymoon” dates back as far as the fifth century in Europe and the measure of time was based on the moon cycles that occurred each month.  At the wedding, the newlywed couple was presented with the “moon” or one month’s worth of mead. Mead was believed to be an aphrodisiac, giving the couple an opportunity to binge on wine for 30 days to get drunk enough to conceive a child. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Wrong!

According to many historians, the honeymoon was meant to hide and protect his bride from others.  Family members who didn’t approve of the wedding if it was an arranged marriage would try to kidnap the bride.  Former lovers that were not able to marry the bride would also make attempts to kidnap her. It was also believed that poorer men did this to avoid having to pay the woman’s family a dowry.

The kidnapping would occur immediately after the wedding was over.  It was crucial for the groom to get his wife out of there quickly. In many cases, the happy couple would go away for a month or two. Tracking the moon cycles was a great way of knowing how long they were gone.  This allowed time for all the drama to subside or allow the bride to become pregnant before returning to their village.

It seems a bit extreme  in today’s culture, since everyone is going to away to celebrate. There was a much more serious nature as to why a honeymoon was ever created in the first place. Now that you’ve heard this, aren’t you lucky your honeymoon will be much more relaxing?

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