Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
Meyrick, writing about one hundred years ago in his History of
Cardiganshire, says Saturday was the Wedding Day, and other writers
mention the same thing, and it is evident that Saturday was the day
on which most people did marry, except in a few districts, about three
generations ago, as well as in older times. Whether this day, that is,
Saturday, was commonly fixed upon from a belief that it was a lucky day
for marriage, or from the convenience of Sunday intervening between it
and a working day, is rather difficult to know, but it seems that the
following old English Marrying Rhyme was either unknown to the Welsh,
or that they did not give heed to it:--
To marry on
"Monday wealth, Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses,
Saturday no luck at all!"
THE HORSE WEDDING.
The rural weddings in South Wales until very recently were Horse
Weddings; that is, it was the custom of the whole party, both men and
women to ride, and generally at full speed. Poor people generally
managed to obtain the loan of horses for the happy occasion from
their richer neighbours. On the wedding morning the invited guests,
both men and women, married and unmarried, came on their horses and
ponies, some of them from a long distance. The men proceeded to the
bridegroom's house, about a hundred or a hundred and fifty in number
and honourably paid their pwython; whilst the women at the same time
went to the house of the bride, and paid to her their pwython.
"Pwython" was the term used in connection with these weddings to denote
the gifts presented to the young bride and bridegroom respectively,
in return for what the invited guests themselves had received on the
occasion of their own weddings from the young man and the young woman,
or their relations or friends. Of course, a large number of those who
gave gifts were young and unmarried, so that they were not all under
an obligation to give; but still they gave, and they were expected
to give to help the young couple, and by so giving, they were placing
the latter under an obligation to them in the future, that is, in such
cases, the giver gave under the expectation of receiving back gifts of
equal value, whenever his or her own, or one of his or her relations'
wedding took place, even should that happen on the very next day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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