Recently I was examining genealogical data for Kilmihil Parish available at http://www.kilmihil.com/?page_id=17. Because of the data format it is a simple matter to arrange it by month, so I thought it might be interesting to look at the most popular months for marriages to take place. Marriages between 1849 and 1999 are listed. Using my spreadsheet program I first split the data set into 19th and 20th Century groups. These were roughly equal at 626 and 691 respectively. The results are shown below.
Percentage of marriages in each month in Kilmihil Parish
Month 19th C 20th C
Jan 15 6
Feb 48 20
Mar 12 12
Apr 4 10
May 4 3
Jun 3 9
Jul 5 11
Aug 3 7
Sep 1 7
Oct 1 5
Nov 4 9
Dec 1 2
What rather surprised me was that almost half (48%) of all 19th Century marriages occurred in February and in fact 75% of Kilmihil parishoners got hitched in the winter months Jan to March. Since 1900 that figure has reduced to only 38%, and there is a much more even spread throughout the year.
Perhaps some of those forum members much more knowledgable than yours truly on Irish social life might like to comment on these figures.
PS apologies for my table formatting - need more practice at pasting into forum
Murf
Why was February so popular for marriage?
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dundeemayer
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Re: Why was February so popular for marriage?
I asked the same question a few years ago and was told most married during Shrovetide, which is the period before Lent. You could not get married during Lent.
Re: Why was February so popular for marriage?
Shrovetide is the period between Christmas and Ash Wednesday. The Catholic church did not permit marriages either during Advent or during Lent. Even within Shrovetide, a huge proportion of all marriages took place on Shrove Tuesday itself. I've seen records of 12 marriages in a parish on one single Shrove Tuesday.
It would be interesting to use your spreadsheet to do a table by day-of-week and see how many marriages took place on Tuesdays, in particular on Shrove Tuesday. That might require some clever use of
http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/ec-cal.html
And of course you will need a spreadsheet program designed for genealogists. Last time I checked, Microsoft seemed to think that the world began as recently as some arbitrary year around 1904!!
It would be interesting to use your spreadsheet to do a table by day-of-week and see how many marriages took place on Tuesdays, in particular on Shrove Tuesday. That might require some clever use of
http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/ec-cal.html
And of course you will need a spreadsheet program designed for genealogists. Last time I checked, Microsoft seemed to think that the world began as recently as some arbitrary year around 1904!!
Re: Why was February so popular for marriage?
Just now I happen to be reading Ignatius Murphy's "Before the Famine Struck", about life in West Clare 1834-1845.
On pg.53 he writes about Shrove Tuesday, "Shrove Tuesday was the greatest day of the year for marriages, and Mason remarked that the Roman Catholic priests in West Clare were generally occupied in such celebrations on that day from sunrise to sunset. However, the marriage register in Kilkee Catholic Church shows that although very many marriages took place just before Lent they were spread over a few days. In all it contains, for example 101 entries for 1838, and of these 48 were celebrated within the period 22-26 February."
('Mason' is W. S. Mason who wrote "A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland", 3 vols. Dublin. 1814 -9).
About forty years ago woman spoke to me of a memory she had of "Chalk Sunday" - a Sunday in February when girls, having fun after Mass, marked the backs of the jackets of single men with chalk. I've never heard of it since then.
On pg.53 he writes about Shrove Tuesday, "Shrove Tuesday was the greatest day of the year for marriages, and Mason remarked that the Roman Catholic priests in West Clare were generally occupied in such celebrations on that day from sunrise to sunset. However, the marriage register in Kilkee Catholic Church shows that although very many marriages took place just before Lent they were spread over a few days. In all it contains, for example 101 entries for 1838, and of these 48 were celebrated within the period 22-26 February."
('Mason' is W. S. Mason who wrote "A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland", 3 vols. Dublin. 1814 -9).
About forty years ago woman spoke to me of a memory she had of "Chalk Sunday" - a Sunday in February when girls, having fun after Mass, marked the backs of the jackets of single men with chalk. I've never heard of it since then.
Re: Why was February so popular for marriage?
Thanks for that info.
Certainly I remember Pancake Tuesday during my upbringing, but I wasn't aware of its implication for Irish marriages. Taking another look at the Kilmihil marriages it is obvious that they come in a rush. A good example is Feb 1857 when 17 weddings took place, culminating with five on the 24th. The date calculator at http://www.spiritrestoration.org/Church ... ulator.htm confirms that this was in fact Shrove Tuesday. My own great grandparents were married at Cooraclare on the previous Wednesday (18th). Looking back at my family history I find that many were married in February, something that I hadn't noticed before. Even my grandparents were married in Sydney on the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday.
A quick look at Kilmihil marriages since 1940 reveals that only 10% occurred in February, and there is a trend towards weddings in the warmer months of the year. So another of the old traditions seems to be fading into the pages of history.
Certainly I remember Pancake Tuesday during my upbringing, but I wasn't aware of its implication for Irish marriages. Taking another look at the Kilmihil marriages it is obvious that they come in a rush. A good example is Feb 1857 when 17 weddings took place, culminating with five on the 24th. The date calculator at http://www.spiritrestoration.org/Church ... ulator.htm confirms that this was in fact Shrove Tuesday. My own great grandparents were married at Cooraclare on the previous Wednesday (18th). Looking back at my family history I find that many were married in February, something that I hadn't noticed before. Even my grandparents were married in Sydney on the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday.
A quick look at Kilmihil marriages since 1940 reveals that only 10% occurred in February, and there is a trend towards weddings in the warmer months of the year. So another of the old traditions seems to be fading into the pages of history.