School: Loughill, Longford

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1. Local Marriage Customs

   

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   For marriages to take place anytime of the year, but Lent and Advent. January is the luckiest month and Wednesday the luckiest day. People make hasty marriages on Shrove Tuesday. The bride and bridegroom wear "Something old and something new, something borrowed and something blue." No matches are made in our district. Fortunes are given except the bride is taken for her good looks, and over 20 the groom wants money. When the match is a making the parents tell the groom about the bride's good qualities and nothing about the bad ones. People dont remember any marriages to have taken place in houses.
   People say the chief thing in the marriage celebration is the "bawn-beggars". They come an play music outside the bride's home, because it is in the bride's house the marriage is celebrated. Then they get drink and if they dont get it they sometimes turn black-guardly. They dance with the bride and she is not supposed to refuse them. If she does so it is supposed to bring bad luck. Long ago there used to be a hawling-home. The boys used to tie a rope a cross the road and hold up the procession. The groom used to throw a handful of silver to them. Then the rope was lifted and the procession to proceeds to the next hold-up. An old boot was hug on the back of the car to bring luck on the pair. The bride used to be seized put on the car, and the groom jumped up beside her. There was a race from that to the bride's home - Pack trying to beat each other. The bride and groom used to ride a horse together for their unity to death.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. social activities (~7)
         1. rites of passage (~573)
            1. marriage (~4,283)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Kevin Doherty

   Gender

   Male