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My Good Babushka

(2,710 posts)
Fri Jun 20, 2014, 06:47 AM Jun 2014

Irish nuptial tradition

The Irish nuptial ritual was for both families to meet on the side of a hill and drink to the agreement. The father of the bride sends to his friends and neighbors and they each give a cow to the couple. If the bride dies childless within a certain day limited by the agreement, the cattle must be returned, so no man may grow rich through a quantity of marriages. The bride and bridegroom meet again on the day of "bringing home". The custom was for the bridegroom's party to shoot darts at the bride's party. Usually not so close to cause harm, but there was within memory (at the time of this account, probably in the 18th century), the loss of an eye. The bridegroom gives his bride a bracelet woven of women's hair.

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