Marriage
- stories from ancient folklore
Wedding - who will I marry II
In Dorsetshire, girls used their shoes as a means of divining who their future husbands were to be. At night, on going to bed, a girl would place her shoes at right angles to one another, in the form of a T, saying :— | “ | Hoping this night my true love to see, I place my shoes in the form of a T. | ” |
Another ancient piece of folklore gives quite specific instructions to conjure up a vision of your future husband ... | “ | Two young unmarried girls must sit together in a room by themselves, from twelve o'clock at night till one o'clock the next morning, without speaking a word. During this time each of them must take as many hairs from her head as she is years old, and, having put them into a linen cloth with some herb, true-love, as soon as the clock strikes one, she must burn every hair separately, saying:— 'I offer this my sacrifice, To him most precious in my eyes; I charge thee now come forth to me. That I this minute may thee see' - upon which her husband will appear, and walk round the room, and then vanish. The same event happens to both the girls, but neither sees the other's lover. | ” |
Old Maid - Never MarriedMarriage is a recurring theme in folklore for obvious reasons, as it is the central, most important event in most people's lives, consiquently there are stories and reasons as to why some are destined to never marry. One such reason is such that it was supposed that if a lady was to complete a patchwwork quilt without assistance then she would be destined not to marry, a diarist writing around 1790 explains why ... | “ | patchwork is generally made a social occupation, and a person must move very little in society, or be of unsocial temper, to do such a thing alone. | ” |
... it would then i suppose imply that she would be unsuited to marriage! Another quote from the same diarist says that ... | “ | The lady, too, who reads the Marriage Service entirely through will never be married. It often happens that those who are too anxious to get married die old maids. | ” |
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