The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the AlmanacHone, William
History
The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3): Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac
Hone, William
Days; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
After the ceremony of the marriage is concluded, it is the privilege of
the bridesman to salute the bride. As the party leave the church, the
pipes again strike up, and the whole company adjourns to the next inn,
or to the house of some relation of the bride’s; for it is considered
“_unlucky_” for her own to be the first which she enters. Before she
crosses the threshold, an oaten cake is broken over her head by the
bridesman and bridesmaid, and distributed to the company, and a glass of
whiskey passes round. The whole party then enter the house, and two or
three friends of the bridegroom, who act as masters of the ceremonies,
pass through the room with a bottle of whiskey, and pour out to each
individual a glass to the health of the bride, the bridegroom, and their
clans. Dancing then commences to the music of the pipes, and the
new-married couple lead off the first reel. It is a customary compliment
for the person of highest rank in the room to accompany her in the next.
During the dancing the whiskey-bottle makes a revolution at intervals;
and after the reels and strathspeys have been kept up for some time, the
company retires to supper. The fare of the supper differs little from
that of the dinner; and the rotation of the whiskey-bottle is as regular
as the sun which it follows.
[At highland festivals the bottle is always circulated sun-ways, an
observance which had its rise in the Druidical “deas’oil,” and once
regulated almost every action of the Celts.]
When the supper is announced, each man leads his partner or some female
friend to the table, and seating himself at her side, takes upon himself
her particular charge during the meal; and upon such occasions, as the
means of the bride and bridegroom do not permit them to bear the
expenses of the supper, he is expected to pay her share of the reckoning
as well as his own. After supper the dancing again commences, and is
occasionally inspired by the before-noticed circumvolutions of the
“Uisga na Baidh.” The bride and bridegroom, and such as choose repose
rather than merriment, retire to take a couple of hours’ rest before
dawn; but the majority keep up the dancing till day. Towards morning
many of the company begin to disperse; and when it is well light,
breakfast is given to all who remain. Tea, multitudes of eggs, cold
meat, a profusion of oat cakes, barley “scones,” and sometimes _wheat
bread_, brought, perhaps, a distance of thirty miles, constitute the
good cheer of this meal. When it is concluded, the bride takes leave of
the majority of her friends, and accompanied only by her particular
intimates and relations, sets off with the bridegroom and his party for
her future residence. She is accompanied by her neighbours to the march
of her father, or the tacksman under whom he lives, and at the burn-side
(for such is generally the boundary) they dance a parting reel: when it
is concluded, the bride kisses her friends, they return to their
dwellings, and she departs for her new home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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