ANST - Wedding Customs

[clward at mmm.com]

Alastair asked about wedding customs.

The spoon custom is a matter of the bridegroom carving an ornate spoon, where
the different sections and patterns mean different things.  I've seen these
"courship spoons" and they're still being made -- but I can't recall which
culture.  I also think the custom is post 1600, though I might be mistaken.

However, in period people did demonstrably carve love tokens for their
betrothed, I know that the Vikings often carved amber pigs, the Poles and
Lithuanians did similar love tokens in amber.

Luckily, there are several good websites dealing with Medieval Wedding customs:

Medieval Weddings
http://paul.spu.edu/~kst/bib/bib.html

The Medieval Wedding FAQ
http://paul.spu.edu/~kst/bib/intro.txt

Medieval and Renaissance Wedding Feasts
http://www.district125.k12.il.us/Renaissance/Town/Food/WeddingFeast.html

A Reconstructed Elizabethan Wedding
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/weddings-e-art.html

Florilegium Period and SCA Weddings
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/weddings-msg.html

A Reconstructed Viking Wedding
http://www.realtime.net/~gunnora/wedding.htm

This should get you started.  Further info can be found by going to any web
browser and searching for +"medieval wedding"

::GUNNORA::
============================================================================
Go to http://www.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.