PSA: Brides have HORNS š
Winter’s Wedding Words: special Japanese edition I didn’t attend many weddings when I lived in Japan 20-odd years ago and only found out today that the traditional Japanese bridal head-dress, tsunokakushi (č§é ć), literally means HORN CONCEALER! It was/is believed to hide the bride’s “horns” of jealousy, ego and selfishness, and is a sign of her […]
With this ring, I thee… bet?
Winter’s Wedding Words: Wedding Are you a betting person? Fond of a flutter? Paying wages? Planning a wedding is closer to all of these than you might have ever thought. The word ‘wedding’ comes from the Old English ‘weddian’, which meant to covenant, engage or pledge. Germanic linguistic history gives us loads of similar words […]
Old wives’ tales
Winter’s Wedding Words: wife I’m disappointed. Not in an epically understated way, like my gracious German cousins last week ā½ļøš. More like when I go out for Chinese food and the main course never seems to live up to splendiferous platter of prawn toasts, satay chicken sticks, spring rolls and duck pancakes we had for […]
Ooh, Matron!
Winter’s Wedding Words: Matron Matron. Matriarch. Maternity. Matricide. All share a common root: the Latin ‘mater’, meaning mother. So why does ‘matrimony’ derive from the same? As with many marriage traditions, the answer is in its patriarchal origins. Marriage was seen as literally the act of establishing a mother in the household. Clearly this is […]
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