Wedding superstitions.

For most people, weddings are a magical time when even the least superstitions will watch for portents of future happiness. As a result, the wedding preparations, ceremony and feast have all become loaded with ritual practices to ward off evil and bless the marriage with fortune and fertility.

The choice of date is important. May is traditionally unlucky for weddings, because in ancient Rome, this was a month for remembering the dead, and an ill-omened time for lovers. In contrast to this, there exists the Christian belief that you should not marry in Lent. Defying augury, many modern couples marry between Easter and late May, a practice much encouraged by tax rebates. The tradition that the bride’s parents should pay for the wedding dates from two or three centuries ago, when wealthy families would pay an eligible bachelor to take an unmarried daughter off their hands in exchange for a large dowry.

Every bride regards her wedding dress as the most hallowed garment she will ever possess. At most formal weddings, brides still get married in virginal white – many other colours are considered unlucky. Green, for example, is the fairies` colour and the wearer may fall into the power of the little people. Yellow, purple, orange and red are also to be avoided, though blue is safe. The bride’s veil is of great importance; it once had the double function of protecting the bride from the evil eye, and at the same time served to keep her in seclusion, in case her psychic powers at this time bewitched people. A bride will also ensure that her wedding outfit includes “something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue”. “Old” maintains her link with the past; “new” symbolizes the future; “borrowed” gives her a link with the present; “blue” symbolizes her purity.

Even a modern bride will observe the taboos about wearing her dress before the ceremony. The groom must not see her in it until she enters the church. Nor must she wear the complete outfit before the wedding day. Certainly the veil shouldn’t be tried on at the same time as the dress; many brides put it on for the first time as they leave for the church. Some brides even believe that the sewing of the dress shouldn’t be finished until the day itself, and leave a few switches to be completed on the wedding morning. It is a lucky omen if the bride should see a chimney sweep on her way to church. Sometimes a sweep is paid to attend the ceremony and kiss the bride – a relic of the old idea that soot and ashes are symbols of fertility. After the ceremony, the couple is showered with confetti – to bless the marriage with fertility.

One old custom which has not entirely died out was for the bride and sometimes the groom to negotiate some obstacle as the left the church – gests would impede them with ropes of flowers, for example, or with sticks that had to be jumped over. Sometimes a stone was used over which the bride had to jump or be lifted. After negotiating these hazards, the bride is faced with the wedding feast. The most important stems is the wedding cake, whose richness symbolizes fertility, just as it has done since Roman times. Today, the first slice is cut by the bride to ensure a fruitful marriage, though once the cake was literally broken over the bride’s head; guests then scrambled for fragments, which would bring good.

From BBC English

1. What are the dates that are thought to be unlucky for wedding in Britain? Why?

2. Why do many modern couples marry between Easter and latte May?

3. Is the colour of the bride’s wedding dress of importance?

4. What is the function of the bride’s veil?

5. Why should the bride’s outfit include “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue”? What do they symbolize?

6. What other taboos about the bride’s outfit should be observed?

7. Why is a chimney sweep paid to attend the wedding ceremony and kiss the bride?

8. How is the marriage blessed with fertility?

9. What does the tradition on jumping over some obstacle symbolize?

10. What tradition is connected with the wedding cake? What meaning does it have?

11. Are weddings in Russia loaded with any ritual practices?

2. Discuss the problem of marriage and cohabitation:

For marriage

1. A family is the basic unit of society.

2. Divorce should be harder to get.

3. A good marriage contributes to personality development.

4. It is not marriage that fails, it is people that fail.

5. Cohabiting parents are three times more likely to split up than married parents. Children are the main victims.

Against marriage

1. Social attitudes and behavior are changing. There is no such thing as society. Only men and women.

2. The divorce rate is rising.

3. One cannot write love into a legal document.

4. Marriage is not a word, it is a sentence.

5. The birth of a child to a single woman gives a purpose in life.

Unit four

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16