Show AllIQUE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS i Marriage celebrations and marriage II customs followed in the New World many of the customs of the Old World Sackposset the drink of Shakespeares time a rich thick concoction of boiled I ale eggs and spices was drunk at New England weddings as we learn from the pages of Judge Sewalls diary but it did not furnish a very gay wassail for the Puritan posset drinking was preceded and followed by the singing of a psailm and such a psalm a tedious drawling performance perform-ance The bride and groom and bridal party walked in a little procession to the meetinghouse on the Sabbath fol i lowing the manage says a writer in American Folk Lore We read in the Sewall diary of a Sewall bride thus coming out or walkingout bride as it was called in Newburyport Cotton Cot-ton Mather thought it expedient to thus make public with due dignity the marriage In some communities the attention of the interested public was further drawn to the newly married couple dn what seems to us a very comic fashion On the Sabbath following follow-ing the wedding the gaily dressed bride and groom occupied a prominent seat in the gallery of the meetinghouse meeting-house and in the middle of the sermon they rose and slowly turned around to display complacently on every side their wedding finery In Lameds History of Windham county Conn we read a description of such a scene in Brooklyn Coon Further attention was paid to the bride by allowing her to choose the text for the sermon preached on the first Sunday of the comingout of the newly married couple Much ingenuity was exercised in finding appropriate and unusual Bible texts for these wedding wed-ding sermons The instances are well known of the marriage of Person Smiths two daughters one of whom selected the text Mary hath chosen that good part while the daugher Abby who married John Adams decided de-cided upon the text John came neitfli er eating bread nor drinking wine and ye say he bath a devil This latter ingenious and curious choice has given rise to an incorrect notion rtJhat the marriage of Abigail Smith with John Adams was distasteful to her falther and her family |