Days and Months Wedding Customs

Down through the years, many days and months wedding customs have grown in Scotland. These include the Days of the Week, Birth Days, Sunday Marriages, the Month of Marriage, the Season of the Year, the Phase of the Moon and Tides.

Days of the Week

Monday for wealth,
Tuesday for health
Wednesday best day of all
Thursday for curses
Friday for crosses/losses
Saturday no luck at all
~ Old Nursery Rhyme

Birth Days
The Victorians developed the wedding tradition that the luckiest day to marry was on the groom’s birthday.

Sunday Marriages
Mary, Queen of Scots, married Lord Darnley on July 29, 1565, a Sunday. From this marriage came the saying, ‘The better the day, the better the deed’.

Until the 17th century, Sunday was the most popular day for weddings in all of the British Isles. This wedding tradition developed as it was the only day most people were free from work.

Month of Marriage

Married when the year is new,
he’ll be loving, kind, and true.
When February birds do mate,
you wed, nor dread your fate.
If you wed when March winds blow,
joy and sorrow you will know.
Marry in April when you can,
Joy for Maiden and for Man
Marry in the month of May,
and you’ll surely rue the day.
Marry when June roses grow,
over land and sea you’ll go.
Those who in July do wed,
must labour for their daily bread.
Whoever wed in August be,
many a change is sure to see.
Marry in September’s shrine,
your living will be rich and fine.
If in October you do marry,
love will come but riches tarry.
If you wed in bleak November,
only joys will come, remember.
When December snows fall fast,
marry and true love will last.
~ An Old Nursery Rhyme

’Marry in May, Rue the Day’ ~ Mary Queen of Scots wed the Earl of Bothwell on May 15, 1567 in a most ill begotten marriage. After the wedding, lines of poetry about women marrying in May and ill omens were attached to the Holyrood Palace gates.

Queen Victoria would not allow her children to marry in the month of May as she considered May to be a bad omen among the Days and Months Wedding Customs.

A traditional portent for the Bride ~

'Sweep the house with blossoms bloomed in May
You'll sweep the head of the house away.'

June, with its roses growing, is still the most popular month for weddings among the Days and Months Wedding Traditions.

The Seasons of the Year
Marry in Lent, live to repent ~ Lent was supposed to be a time of abstinence.

Summertime was considered a good time to marry ~ partly because of the sun's association with fertility.

The Phases of the Moon
The moon increasing was a good omen, while the moon on the wane was a bad omen for the marriage.

A glowing moon and a flowing tide
Fortune smiles on the happy bride