Ozark Magic and Folklore by Vance Randolph

Author:Vance Randolph
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Dover Publications, Inc.

Marry when the year is new,

Your mate will be constant, kind and true.

Weddings in May are said to be unlucky, and so are those celebrated in rainy or snowy weather; bright, warm wedding days are best, and there is an old saying “happy is the bride that the sun shines on.” To marry while the wild hawthorn or red-haw is in bloom would be very bad luck indeed. There are some people, however, who say that young folk should marry when the sign’s in the loins—in Scorpio, that is—and that nothing else matters.

The wedding day is called the bride’s day; if it is bright and pleasant her wedded life will be happy. If the morning is fair and the afternoon rainy, the first part of her married life will be happy, and the latter half unhappy. The day after the wedding, when the “infare” dinner is held at the home of the bridegroom’s parents, is known as the man’s day, and the same weather signs indicate his future happiness or unhappiness. To postpone a wedding is very bad luck, however, an almost certain sign that one of the contracting parties will die within a year, so that when a certain date is once decided upon the ceremony must be performed, no matter what the weather conditions may be.

It is best to purchase a wedding ring from a mail-order house, because the ordinary “store-boughten” ring may have absorbed bad luck from someone who has tried it on in the store. Once on the bride’s finger, the ring should not be removed for seven years.

A couple being married should stand with their feet parallel to the cracks in the floor, as to stand crosswise invites bad luck and evil spirits; this is taken quite seriously in some places. A bride is sometimes audibly reminded to thrust out her right foot as she turns away from the preacher after the ceremony, since it is bad luck to begin one’s married life on the left foot. A pinch of mustard seed may be thrown after a newly married couple, by the bride’s parents; this is never commented upon, and I have been unable to learn its significance. If newly married people see a toad in the path, immediately after the ceremony, they regard it as a good omen.

Another old-time notion is that the newlywed who falls asleep first after the wedding will be the first of the couple to die; this is widely credited in some sections, although it is rarely mentioned or discussed. Others think that if the number of letters in the couple’s given names—both names added together—is divisible by two, it means that the bridegroom will live longer than the bride; if the number is odd, the bride will outlive her husband.

Some mountain girls believe that it is bad luck to marry a man whose surname has the same initial as one’s own:

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