Wedding Traditions and Superstitions: Choosing the Date

Choosing the wedding date involves a lot of factors like traditions, superstitions and among others.

A popular day for a wedding is used to be Sunday where most people are free from work. However, Puritans in the Seventeenth Century put a stop to this, believing it was improper to be festive on the Sabbath day.

Certain days of the week and certain months of the year are better than others for a wedding. As the rhyme goes..

Monday for health
Tuesday for wealth
Wednesday best of all
Thursday for losses
Friday for crosses
Saturday for no luck at all

Married when the year is new, he'll be loving, kind & true,
When February birds do mate, You wed nor dread your fate.
If you wed when March winds blow, joy and sorrow both you'll know.
Marry in April when you can, Joy for Maiden & 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 bred.
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.

In the east, the Chinese will never choose a date for a wedding with 4 in it. In the US, many see 13 as an extremely unlucky number and avoid that date. Lucky numbers are 8 for the Chinese and 7 for the US. 7 is a significant number for many reasons. They call it lucky 7. In Japanese mythology there are 7 Gods of Fortune while in Christianity there are 7 deadly sins. There are 7 wonders in the world and there 7 basic chakras or energy centers. Many couples got married on 7th August 2007, that way they ended up with 7/7/07 as their wedding date. Same as 8th August last year where so many couples tied the knot. The 8 is considered lucky and a triple such as in 8/8/08 is considered a very auspcious thing.

The phase of the moon is another thing that many take into consideration when planning for weddings. It is believed by some that that the moon attracts energy to or from us. It is said that more blessings are given if a ritual is done while the moon is waxing towards the full moon, particularly on the three days leading all the way up the full moon. Since we know that the moon affects the waves it isn’t too hard to believe that it may indeed have a part to play in good fortune at weddings. The suggestion is to choose a date before the full moon as close to the date of the full moon as possible if not on the day itself. They say that when the full moon begins to wane so does ones luck run out. You’ll have to decide for yourself if this is true or not.