Scottish Wedding Pic: MDV Weddings

The following article comes from a well-reputed supplier of Scottish Wedding accoutrements and we can do no better for supplying this information than recommending them for your wedding.Visit Scot Clans Weddings for all your needs. The Scottish weddings we know today are a curious mixture of romance, ritual, religion, superstition and practicality. Much of this we take for granted without realising that they have meaning and purpose deeply rooted in the past. By examining the ancient wedding customs of Scotland we can gain insight into the traditions which have come down to us and understand the meaning of the rituals and symbols.

Scottish Weddings are as old as the hills. Various communities had their own ways of celebrating the coming together of a couple. For example the fishing communities had weddings in the winter when hard seas restricted fishing, and there seems to have been a relationship between the size of catches and matrimony. If catches were good the wedding bells would ring and the wedding would go ahead, otherwise if the catches failed the wedding may have been cancelled.

Coortin

There are an abundance of old Scottish songs, rymes and sayings that warn or advise on the best ways of securing a mate, or of the consequences of premarital sex. Magic and divination were used to foretell the future. Young women tried everything to avoid bad luck in finding a mate and the risk of becoming an old maid. Some proverbial sayings are:

‘Marry for love and work for siller

‘They say in Fife
That next tae nae wife
The best thing is a guild wife’

‘When ye tak a man, ye tak a maister’

Incantations and love potions

Incantations were performed frequently to foretell who was to be the future husband or wife:

The first time a girl slept in a strange bed a ring was put on her finger, one of her shoes was placed below the bed, the bed was then entered backwards. The future husband would then be seen in a dream.’

‘The maid who was desirous of seeing who was to be her future husband had to read the third verse of the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Job after supper; wash the supper dishes and go to bed without the utterance of a single word, placing below her pillow the Bible, with a pin stuck through the verse she had read. The future husband would appear in a dream.’

More sinister perhaps are the love potions:

‘The root of the orchid was dug up. The old root is exhausted and when cast in water floats – this is hatred. The new root is heavy and sinks in the water – this is love because nothing sinks deeper than love. The ‘Love Root’ was dried ground and secretly administered as a potion; strong love was the result.’

‘Two lozenges were taken, covered with perspiration (or other bodily juices) and stuck together and given in this form to the one whose love was sought. The eating of them excited strong affection.’

In the age of reason these beliefs seem superstitious and foolish. But these were the firm beliefs of the time. The rituals and beliefs almost all contain some elements of the occult. Survivals of these customs exist today, such as the Halloween parties and particularly in the wedding ritual.

Pre-marital sex was thought badly upon. Young lads would shout at courting couples the following lines:

“Lad and lass
Wi the fite cockade
Mairrit in the coal hole
An kirkit in the barn”
or
“Cockie doss, Lad and Lass
Mairrit in a coal hole.”

Some old songs also give an insight into the ways of courting, for example ‘There Cam A Young Man’ tells of a wooer getting rejected and bettered.

THERE CAM A YOUNG MAN

There cam a young man to my daddies door
My daddies door, my daddies door
There cam a young man to my daddies door
Came seeking me to woo

Chorus
And wow he was a braw young lad
A brisk young lad, and a braw young lad
And wow he was a braw young lad
Came seeking me to woo

But I was baking when he came
When he came, when he came
I took him in an gaed him a scone
To thaw his frozen mou

I set him in aside the bink
I gaed him bread and ale to drink
And ne’er a blyth styme wad he blink
Until his wame was flu

Gae get ye gone, ye cauldrife woo’er
Ye sour lookin, cauldrife woo’er
I straightway showed him to the door

There lay a duck-dub before the door
Before the door, before the door
There lay a duck dub before the door
And there fell he I trow

Out came the goodman and high he shouted
Out came the goodwife and low she louted
And a the town neighbours were gathered about it
And there lay he I trow

Ye came to woo but ye’re a beguiled
Ye ave fa’en i the dirt and ye’re a befyld
We’ll hae nae mair of you.

The Speerin

There was often a ritual attached to the prospective groom seeking the girl’s hand. Known as ‘The Speerin’ or ‘The Beukin’, it involved the bride’s father feigning displeasure, making the suitor work hard for his approval, and throwing hurdles in his way. After each hurdle was overcome the minister would be asked to make the appropriate proclamation from the pulpit.

Read part 2 of this fascinating article tomorrow and don’t forget to visit Scot Clans Weddings for all your needs.

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