As most people know it, the honeymoon is the period that follows a wedding where the newlyweds whisk off to a tropical or romantic location to spend a week or two basking in their newly married life. Where did this honeymoon idea come from? There are a few theories and even while some have been disproved, the residue of those stories still echo through wedding blogs and magazines. Let’s explore…
Relatives tour Doctors being anti-honeymoon Mead Bees The depressing decline Divorce rates The vacation For upperclass newlyweds what we currently know as a honeymoon was more likely a wedding tour, to visit relatives who could not attend the wedding. I think we sufficiently covered this in our three-stop-wedding anniversary party. Check. From its origins when travel became a part of the deal, Italy and the French Riviera were popular destinations. Traditionally, couples would leave midway through the wedding reception, however today, they may not leave for 1-3 days post ceremony… or until they have the money to do it. Back in the day, medical practitioners advised against the travel. This was due to the fragility of the wife during this important sexual initiation. They thought the travel might actually be too difficult for her. Moving along… There’s a story about pagans drinking mead for the first month after a wedding. This is debated and from what I’ve seen, not entirely true, but it sounds delicious nonetheless. Bees. Another source for the term comes from the early days in the life of a honey bee queen. Immediately after her birth within a hive, a queen bee leaves the hive over the course of several days, to meet up with multiple drones in separate drone congregation areas. She is inseminated with a lifetime of sperm, and then returns to the hive to remain there the rest of her life, laying eggs. The queen essentially goes away for a "honey-moon" and returns back, ready to live the rest of her life. The centuries old practice of beekeeping may have led to other folklore related to this "going away" before starting a life "in the hive" (back at home). Yikes. The first recorded description of the word comes from 1542, when Samuel Johnson. The cheery fellow wrote, “The first month after marriage, when there is nothing but tenderness and pleasure; originally having no reference to the period of a month, but comparing mutual affection of newly-married persons to the changing moon which is no sooner full that it begins to wane…” The cynicism doesn’t stop there. In 1552, author Richard Huloet wrote: “Hony mone, a term proverbially applied to such as be newly married, which will not fall out at the first, but th’one loveth the other at the beginning exceedingly, the likelihood of their exceadings love appearing to aswage, ye which time the vulgar people call the hony mone.” What downers. In 2015, a “scholarly study” concluded that honeymooning is somewhat associated with a lower risk of divorce (regardless of how much time is spent on the honeymoon itself). If you’ve been following along, you’ve noticed a theme about weddings as we know them being about wealth and class. As it turns out, high spending on wedding-related expenses such as this IS associated with a high risk of divorce. (Divorce seems like a whole other topic I am not getting near but shout out to all my people consciously uncoupling!) It wasn’t until 200 years after the term honeymoon was created that it caught on as a vacation, around 1791. Finally, the phrase honeymoon, or hony mone, alluded to the first month of marriage being the sweetest, filled with tenderness and pleasure. And there we have it. May you hony mone every month of your relationships! Details about ours coming soon.
1 Comment
11/2/2022 03:42:06 pm
Positive quite white best news. Do day leg join address. Account either among good position.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |