opentyde

Gammerstang commented on the word opentyde

once ran from this day, the Feast of Epiphany, through Ash Wednesday, when marriages commonly took place in Britain. They were frowned on during Lent, especially on March 19, and were all but forbidden during the Christmas season, from late November until Epiphany. June nuptials remained in vogue and were blessed by the Church, but those during the "lusty month of May" were condemned as a holdover from pagan times, as this couplet reminds us:

Married in May, and kirked dressed in green,

Both bride and groom won't long be seen.

John Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities (1813) noted: "There was formerly a custom in the North of England, which will be thought to have bordered very closely upon indecency, and strongly marks the grossness of manners that prevailed among our ancestors. It was for the young men . . . to strive immediately after the ceremony to see who could first pluck off the Bride's Garters from her legs. This was done before the very altar . . . Whoever were so fortunate as to be victors in this . . . contest, during which the bride was often obliged to scream out, and was very frequently thrown down, bore the garters about the church in triumph."

January 18, 2018

plethora commented on the word opentyde

This makes me feel somewhat more charitable toward the garter toss thing, for some reason.

January 18, 2018