In old times in Ireland it was thought right and proper to seem to use
force in carrying off the bride to her husband. She was placed on a
swift horse before the bridegroom, while all her kindred started in
pursuit with shouts and cries. Twelve maidens attended the bride, and
each was placed on horseback behind the young men who rode after the
bridal pair. On arriving at her future home, the bride was met on the
threshold by the bridegroom’s mother, who broke an oaten cake over her
head as a good augury of plenty in the future. In the mountains where
horses cannot travel, the bridal party walk in procession; the young
men carrying torches of dried bogwood to light the bride over the
ravines, for in winter the mountain streams are rapid and dangerous to
cross.
The Celtic ceremonial of marriage resembles the ancient Greek ritual
in many points. A traveller in Ireland some fifty years ago, before
politics had quite killed romance and ancient tradition in the hearts
of the people, thus describes a rustic marriage festival which he came
on by chance one evening in the wilds of Kerry:—
A large hawthorn tree that stood in the middle of a field near a
stream was hung all over with bits of coloured stuff, while lighted
rush candles were placed here and there amongst the branches, to
symbolize, no doubt, the new life of brightness preparing for the
bridal pair. Then came a procession of boys marching slowly with flutes
and pipes made of hollow reeds, and one struck a tin can with a stick
at intervals, with a strong rhythmical cadence. This represented the
plectrum. Others rattled slates and bones between their fingers, and
beat time, after the manner of the Crotolistrai—a rude attempt at
music, which appears amongst all nations of the earth, even the most
savage. A boy followed, bearing a lighted torch of bogwood. Evidently
he was Hymen, and the flame of love was his cognizance. After him came
the betrothed pair hand-in-hand, a large square canopy of black stuff
being held over their heads; the emblem, of course, of the mystery of
love, shrouded and veiled from the prying light of day.
Behind the pair followed two attendants bearing high over the heads of
the young couple a sieve filled with meal; a sign of the plenty that
would be in their house, and an omen of good luck and the blessing of
children.
A wild chorus of dancers and singers closed the procession; the chorus
of the epithalamium, and grotesque figures, probably the traditional
fauns and satyrs, nymphs and bacchanals, mingled together with mad
laughter and shouts and waving of green branches.
The procession then moved on to a bonfire, evidently the ancient altar;
and having gone round it three times, the black shroud was lifted from
the bridal pair, and they kissed each other before all the people, who
shouted and waved their branches in approval.
Then the preparations for the marriage supper began, on which, however,
the traveller left them, having laid some money on the altar as an
offering of good-will for the marriage future. At the wedding supper
there was always plenty of eating and drinking, and dancing and the
feast were prolonged till near morning, when the wedding song was sung
by the whole party of friends standing, while the bride and bridegroom
remained seated at the head of the table. The chorus of one of these
ancient songs may be thus literally translated from the Irish—
“It is not day, nor yet day,
It is not day, nor yet morning;
It is not day, nor yet day,
For the moon is shining brightly.”
Another marriage song was sung in Irish frequently, each verse ending
with the lines—
“There is sweet enchanting music, and the golden harps are ringing;
And twelve comely maidens deck the bride-bed for the bride.”
A beautiful new dress was presented to the bride by her husband at the
marriage feast; at which also the father paid down her dowry before the
assembled guests; and all the place round the house was lit by torches
when night came on, and the song and the dance continued till daylight,
with much speech-making and drinking of poteen. All fighting was
steadily avoided at a wedding; for a quarrel would be considered a most
unlucky omen. A wet day was also held to be very unlucky, as the bride
would assuredly weep for sorrow throughout the year. But the bright
warm sunshine was hailed joyfully, according to the old saying—
“Happy is the bride that the sun shines on;
But blessed is the corpse that the rain rains on.”