'Marry in May and rue the day' - a St Patrick's Day special!

We all love traditions - every family has one and the world of weddings is rife with them.  So, in the spirit of St Patrick's day, I’m bringing you four of my favourite Irish traditions.

Last one to the altar has to wait till next year!

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day to you and me) was once the most popular day to get married in Ireland.  There was common belief that you weren’t allowed to marry during or after Lent (it was, of course, a genuine mistake as it was the forty days of Lent that the Church decreed unsuitable for weddings) and this meant that couples wanting to get married had only a few months to do so, unless they wanted to wait another year– making the Shrove Tuesday the last day they could get hitched. 

The luck of the Irish

The bride would often carry a horseshoe to give her luck on the big day (carried the right way up of course, we don’t want it to slip out) and although she’s not expected to carry a whopping great horseshoe with her these days, you can still find smaller counterparts that can be discreetly slipped into your bouquet or worn as jewellery.  Of course a bride can still carry a real horseshoe if she fancies – she just needs to remember to get it off the horse first.

This beautiful horseshoe necklace by Posh Totty Designs Boutique is available to purchase from Not On The Highstreet and costs £33.

A weekday wedding

Most couples tend to get hitched at the weekend; it means guests don’t have to take time off work to attend and often weddings will stretch over several days.  Go back a hundred years or so and things were quite different.  It was the norm for a couple to marry on a weekday – Saturdays were market day and it was unlikely the Church would allow a wedding on the Sabbath – so the bride and groom would be left choosing a day in the week.  This traditional Irish poem might just be the thing to help you choose which day you want to marry on.

Monday for health
Tuesday for wealth,
Wednesday the best day of all,
Thursday for losses,
Friday for crosses,
And Saturday, no day at all!

His goose is cooked!

We’ve all heard those immortal words but how many of us know the tradition behind them? In honour of the upcoming nuptials a groom would be invited to meet his bride and have dinner with her family; her parents roasting a goose in his honour.  Everyone involved with the wedding would be invited and it was a good way for the groom and bride to ‘eye up’ their prospective spouse.

Bridget Haggerty’s book The Traditional Irish Wedding is available from Amazon.

Have a good St Patrick’s Day!

Hannah xx

The above information was found here and here.