LOVE AND MARRIAGE.
ENGAGEMENT.
327. If you are a bridesmaid three times you will never stand in the
middle.
_Baldwinsville, N.Y._
328. Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride.
_New England._
329. Don't let another person put on your engagement ring, taken from
your finger, or the engagement will be broken.
_Bathurst, N.B._
330. The mother-in-law's test of the incoming daughter-in-law is to place
a broom on the floor. If the daughter removes it and places it on one
side, she will be a good housewife; if she steps over it, she will be a
bad housewife.
_Labrador._
331. A girl will have as many children after marriage as she has
"holders" given her before marriage.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
ATTIRE OF THE BRIDE.
332. If you try on your wedding dress before the ceremony, you will not
be happy.
_Cambridge, Mass._
333. The bride should wear a borrowed garter, and also a yellow garter.
_Boston, Mass._
334. If a bride wear a yellow garter tied on by a girl friend, the latter
will be married inside the year.
_Eastern Massachusetts._
335. The bride should wear
Something old,
Something new,
Something borrowed,
And something blue.
_Very common._
336. Wear no black at a wedding; it foretells ill luck.
_Massachusetts._
337. To be married in a brown dress is good luck; black is bad.
_Bathurst, N.B._
338. To be married in anything but white garments indicates bad luck for
the bride, white being emblematical of innocence.
They say that white is a heavenly hue.
Another has added,
It may be so, but the sky is blue.
_Massachusetts._
339. White is emblematical of holiness and truth. Blue is emblematical of
peace and security; bright green of true learning, as being the uniform
clothing of nature.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
340. A bride must not look in the glass after her toilet is complete,
_i.e._, she must add a glove or some article after leaving the mirror.
_Maine and Massachusetts._
341. It is bad luck for a bride to keep any of the pins that she used
when she was married.
_Alabama._
342. You will be unhappy if you lose your wedding ring.
_General in the United States._
343. If the bride just before leaving the house throws her bouquet over
the banisters, the one who catches it is next to be wedded.
_Philadelphia, Pa._
344. If a drop of blood gets on a garment in making, it will be one of
your wedding garments.
LUCKY DAYS.
345. Marry in Lent,
Live to repent.
_New York._
346. The day after a wedding is called the bride's day, the next day the
groom's day; the condition of the weather on these days will indicate
whether their lives are to be happy or otherwise.
_Salem, Mass., and Queen Anne Co., Md._
347. The wedding day is the bride's day, and the weather foretells her
married life. The following is the bridegroom's, and his married life is
shown in the same manner. The third day shows how they will live together.
_New York._
348. The two days before the wedding are the bride's days. If they are
pleasant, she will have good luck, etc.
_Waltham, Mass._
349. Marriage days.
Monday--a bad day.
Tuesday--you will have a good husband and will live long.
Wednesday--a grand day; you will have a good husband, and will
live happily, but will have some trouble.
Thursday--a bad day.
Friday--a bad day.
Saturday--no luck at all.
Sunday--no luck at all.
_Baltimore, Md. (negro)._
350. Wednesday is the luckiest day on which to be married. Saturday is
the unluckiest. Friday is also unlucky.
_Bathurst, N.B._
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY.
351. Happy is the bride that the sun shines on.
_Northern Ohio._
352. If it rains on the wedding, the bride will cry all her married life.
_Talladega, Ala._
353. To marry in a storm betokens an unhappy life.
_Peabody, Mass._
354. It is unlucky to drop the ring at the marriage ceremony.
_New York._
355. A bride must step over the church sill with her right foot.
_Orange Co., N.Y._
356. A double wedding is unlucky; one of the marriages will be unhappy.
_Massachusetts._
357. The pair to be married should stand in line with the cracks in the
floor, and not at right angles to them.
_Omaha, Neb._
358. When a couple are married and are driving off, if old shoes are
thrown after them for good luck, and one of the shoes lodges on the coach
or carriage, it is a sign that one of the party will die before the year
is out.
_Waltham, Mass._
359. After the marriage ceremony is performed, the one that walks first
from the altar is the one who will die first, either bride or groom.
_Alabama._
360. Old slippers or rice must be thrown after a bride for good luck.
_General in the United States._
361. If the younger sister is married before the elder, the latter will
have to dance in a pig's trough.
_Western Massachusetts._
362. Runaway matches will prove unlucky.
_New York._
363. It is a sign of ill luck to take off the wedding ring.
_General in the United States._
COURTING AND WEDDING SIGNS.
364. If your apron string becomes loosened, your true love is thinking of
you.
_New York._
365. If your apron drops off, you'll lose your beau. The same is true if
you lose your garter.
_Stevens Point, Wis._
366. If you sink a bottle in water, it will weaken your love.
_Massachusetts._
367. Step over the broom, and you will be an old maid.
368. If a girl wet her apron in washing, it is a sign that she will have
a drunken husband.
_Labrador, Scilly Cove, N.F., and New England._
369. To hang clothes wrong side out is an antidote for a drunken husband.
_Maine._
370. If a girl finds a cobweb in the door, it is a sign that her beau
calls elsewhere.
_Northern Ohio._
371. To find many cobwebs in the kitchen means that there is no courting
there.
_Boston, Mass._
372. When the collar slips around and the opening comes to the ear, your
lover is thinking of you.
_Salem, Mass._
373. If you button your dress up unevenly, it is a sign that your lover
is thinking of you.
_Miramichi, N.B._
374. If you begin to button your dress unevenly, you will be a widow.
_Central Maine._
375. If you are cross when you are young, you will be an old maid.
_Alabama._
376. If you fall up stairs, you will have a new beau.
_Winn, Me._
377. Tumble up stairs and you'll not get married within the year. (Hence
old maids were formerly said to be careful how they went up stairs.)
_New England._
378. Stumbling either up or down stairs means you'll be married inside a
year.
_Cape Breton._
379. If you sit on a table, you will not be married that year.
_New England, New York, and Alabama._
380. Dropping hairpins from your hair means that your beau is thinking of
you.
_General in the United States._
381. If a lady dons a gentleman's hat, it is a sign that she wants a
kiss.
382. If your lips itch, it is a sign some one will kiss you.
_Boston, Mass._
383. If the outside of your nose itches, some one out of town loves you,
and if the inside of your nose, then you are loved by some one in town.
_Western Massachusetts._
384. If a gentleman and lady are riding and are tipped out, they will be
married.
_Nashua, N.H._
385. Make a rhyme when talking, and you'll see your true love before
Saturday night.
_Massachusetts._
386. Should your shoestring come unloosened,
'T is a sure sign and a true,
At that very moment
Your true love thinks of you.
_New York._
387. If your shoe comes untied, your sweetheart is talking about you.
_Alabama._
388. If you want to sneeze and can't, it is a sign some one loves you,
and doesn't dare to tell it.
_Boston, Mass._
389. If you can't drink a cup of tea, you must be love-sick.
_Labrador._
390. Stub your toe
See your beau.
_Massachusetts and Maine._
391. If four persons cross hands in shaking hands on taking leave, one
will marry before the year is out.
_Prince Edward Island, Eastern Massachusetts, and New York._
392. If hands are crossed at the table while passing a dish, a wedding
will follow. The top hand belongs to the person who will be married.
_Pennsylvania._
393. To have two teaspoons in a saucer signifies marriage in a year.
394. If a gentleman stayed to dinner and by accident got two knives, two
forks, or two spoons, at his plate, he would be married within a year,
and there was no help for it.
_Connecticut._
395. Knock over your chair on rising from the table, and you won't get
married that year.
_Peabody, Mass., New York, and Talladega, Ala._
396. If a girl sew a button on the clothing of a marriageable man, she
will marry him within the year.
_New England._
397. If you have a dress with rings for a figure in it, it is a sign you
will be married before it is worn out.
_New York._
398. If you have hearts in a figure in a dress or in a shawl, you will be
married before it is worn out.
_New York._
399. If you have a new dress and there are roses in it, the person who
owns the dress will be married before the dress is worn out.
_Salem, Mass._
400. Pins in the front of a dress waist are a sign that the wearer will
be an old maid.
_New Hampshire._
401. If, in making a dress, the thread kinks badly, the person for whom
it is made will either die or get married before the dress is worn out.
_Alabama._
402. If you have a dress tried on, and any pin catches in the
underclothing, every pin means that it is a year before you will be
married; hence dressmakers are especially careful to pin the dress in
such a way that it will slip off easily.
_Boston, Mass._
403. If you have good success in building a fire, you will have a smart
husband; if bad success, a lazy husband.
_St. John, N.B., and Ohio._
404. If a lock of hair over the forehead ("widow's lock") be cut before
marriage, the girl will be a widow.
_Labrador._
405. Get a lady friend to knit you a yellow garter. She must ask a
gentleman unknown to you to knit ten rows. You will meet and marry the
gentleman within a year.
406. The exchange of one yellow garter means a proposal in six months.
_Washington, D.C._
407. If a girl wears a yellow garter (which has been given to her) every
day for a year, or every day and night for six months, at the end of that
time she will be married.
_Montreal, P.Q._
408. If you burn a lover's letter, he will never marry you.
_Central Maine._
409. If, at a dinner, a single person is inadvertently placed between two
married people (husband or wife), it means marriage for him or her within
a year.
410. If you pass between two men on the street, you'll marry both of them
sometime.
_Champaign, Ill._
411. If you drop a knitting-needle, you won't be married during the
present year.
412. If you break many needles in a garment, it will be worn at a
wedding.
413. If you draw blood from a prick of the needle while making a garment,
it is a sign you will be kissed the first time you wear it.
_Boston, Mass._
414. Should needles break while sewing on a new garment, it is a sign
that the owner will be married before it is worn out.
_New York._
415. When a young man goes to see a girl for the first time, and the
signs of the zodiac are in the heart, they will one day marry.
_Harmony, Me._
416. If you step on a cigar stub, you will marry the first man you meet.
_Salem, Mass._
417. Two spoons in a cup is the sign of a wedding.
_Bathurst, N.B., and Wisconsin._
418. If you get two spoons in your cup or saucer, you'll marry a second
husband or wife.
419. If a couple out walking together stumble, it is a sign that they
will be married.
_Labrador._
420. Sit on the table,
Married before you're able.
_Mattawamkeag, Me._
421. If a girl gets the last piece of bread on a plate at the table, she
will have a handsome husband.
_Massachusetts._
422. If all of three dishes at the table are eaten, all of the unmarried
people at the table will be married within the year.
_Northern Massachusetts._
423. "If the tea-kettle boils, you will boil your beaux away," is an old
saying.
_Salem, Mass._
424. If you have a cup of tea handed to you, and there are little bits
floating on top, they represent the number of husbands you will
have--one, two, or three.
425. A girl that takes her thimble to the table will be an old maid.
_Northern Ohio._
426. Three in a row,
Meet your beau.
The one in the middle will have him.
_Massachusetts._
427. Three lamps in a row, the one who sets down the third will be soon
married.
_Massachusetts._
428. Three lamps in a row foretell a wedding in the family.
_New York._
429. To look into a tumbler when you are drinking is a sign that you will
be an old maid. If you look over the side, you are a flirt.
_Massachusetts._
430. To wash the hands under a pump denotes that you will be a widow.
_Chestertown, Md._