Fact Check

Assorted Wedding Superstitions

A compendium of lesser-known wedding superstitions.

Published May 24, 2000

Claim:


  • Sisters should never marry on the same day, or even during the same year, lest this action condemn them both to unhappy marriages.
  • A woman must not be married in the same church she was christened in.
  • Brides must not read the whole of the wedding ceremony before getting hitched, lest the wedding not come about.
  • The prudent bride will feed the cat before leaving for the church. Such an act will ensure her happiness.
  • Speaking of cats, the sneeze from one on the wedding day is said to foretell a happy marriage.
  • Bridal tears during the ceremony are considered lucky, but tears at any other moment during the wedding day are said to foreshadow a marriage full of them.
  • It's unlucky to have a widow at the wedding ceremony.

  • If the solemnity of the service is momentarily interrupted by the sound of a crying child, this should be taken as a happy sign.

Barbara "cry baby" Mikkelson

Last updated:   27 June 2005





  Sources Sources:

    Hole, Christina.   The Encyclopedia of Superstitions.

    New York: Barnes & Noble, 1996.   ISBN 0-76070-228-4.

    Opie, Iona and Moira Tatem.   A Dictionary of Superstitions.

    Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.   ISBN 0-19-282-916-5.

    Pickering, David.   Dictionary of Superstitions.

    London: Cassell, 1995.   ISBN 0-304-345350.

    Tuleja, Tad.   Curious Customs.

    New York: Harmony Books, 1987.   ISBN 0-517-56654-0.