The Historical Child: Paidology; The Science of the ChildChrisman, Oscar
History
The Historical Child: Paidology; The Science of the Child
Chrisman, Oscar
Children; Manners and customs
Some time previous to the day fixed, the bridegroom was invested
ceremoniously with a dress cap or bonnet, and he took an additional
name. About this same time the bride, whose hair had hung down in long
tresses, had it done up in the style of married women of her class in
society. Usually, the day before the wedding, the bride tried on the
clothes she was to wear in the sedan going to the home of her husband,
and what she was to wear the first day upon her arrival at his home.
This was an occasion of great interest to her family, and the parents
invited female relatives and friends to a feast that they might view the
clothing and help to have things well prepared for the wedding-day.
On the wedding-day, the bridegroom or his best man and friends went with
an ornamented sedan, accompanied with musicians, to the home of the
bride. When evening came and the stars were just beginning to peep out,
the bride, with a thick veil over her head and completely covering her
features from view, entered the sedan and the procession, with music and
lanterns, took its way to the home of the bridegroom. On reaching his
residence, the bride was carried into the house in the arms of matrons
and lifted over a pan of burning charcoal on the threshold. The
bridegroom and bride seated themselves side by side, each trying to sit
on a part of the dress of the other, as it was considered that the one
who succeeded in so doing would rule the household. Then the bride
returned to her chamber and her outer garments and veil were removed and
she was dressed in her wedding finery and then with her husband she
entered upon the wedding-dinner. Often this was the first time in the
husband's life to behold the features of his wife. He could eat what he
chose of the good things but she, according to established custom, must
not take a particle, but must sit in silence, dignified and composed.
The door of the room was left open and about it gathered the invited
guests, the parents of the bridegroom and his relatives, all of whom
scrutinized the bride and observed her deportment and expressed their
opinions and criticisms. The cup of alliance was drunk together by the
young couple and pledges were exchanged. On the next day they worshipped
together the ancestral gods of the husband and paid their respects to
his parents and relatives. This was the wife's last time to be in public
with her husband, as husbands were never seen with their wives in
public. On the third day after the wedding, the bride paid a customary
visit to her own parents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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