Wedded to a white dress
QUESTION
Are there any colours considered unlucky to wear at a wedding if you are a bride, groom or guest?
UNTIL the 19th century, clothing was rarely bought specially for weddings. Brides wore their best dress, while grooms and guests attended in their Sunday best.
In peasant communities, national costume was commonly worn to weddings.
The morning suit favoured by modern grooms and ushers was derived from late 19th century formal riding attire.
It was late Victorian folklorists who spread the notion that various colours, usually green, were unlucky at weddings.
It was an era of superstition, mysticism and romanticism where people believed in ghosts, goblins, sylphs, fairies and other supernatural creatures.
Green was considered the colour of the ‘faerie’ and was thus considered unlucky.
There was also an underlying moral tone – ‘had a green gown’ implied loose morals with a predilection for tumbling in the undergrowth.
One popular rhyme described the implications of a bride’s colour choice:
Married in white, you have chosen all right, Married in black, you will wish yourself back, Married in red, you wish yourself dead, Married in green, ashamed to be seen, Married in blue, you will always be true, Married in pearl, you will live in a whirl, Married in yellow, ashamed of your fellow, Married in brown, you will live out of town, Married in pink, your fortunes will sink.
Though Britain’s Queen Victoria is remembered for her funereal wardrobe – she wore black for four decades after the death of her beloved husband, Albert, in 1861 – she popularised the white wedding dress that has since become a singular must-have, even in these days of civil weddings..
Following the royal couple’s nuptials in 1840, illustrations of the ceremony were widely published and, at the time, it became very fashionable to copy the Queen’s choice of colours.
However, contrary to popular belief, the white of the dress has absolutely nothing to do with notions of purity.
It was chosen by Victoria because it was the perfect colour to highlight the delicate Honiton lace of her bridal gown.
White is not a universal colour of wedding dresses.
In Mexico and Spain, red is the popular colour.
Black was once the most popular colour of choice in Sweden, while green was worn in Norway.
Aubrey Connors, Cheshire.
QUESTION
What is the shortest place name in Ireland? What is the shortest in the world?
THERE are a number of Irish placenames here that are just two letters long – though most are as Gaeilge.
The most obvious of these is seen every day printed on car registration plates on roads all over the country – Lú, which is the Irish for Louth.
Another place with a very similar name is the parish of Lé in Co. Laois, otherwise known as Lea.
The townlands of Dú (also known as Hurcle) in Co. Meath and Sí (or Shee) in Co. Monaghan are also contenders.
The only place with a name in English that has two letters would be the Slieve Gamph or St Patrick’s mountain range in Co. Sligo – these are also often known as the Ox mountains.
Mikey Sheehan, Co. Kerry. THERE are several Norwegian towns and villages known as A for this reason – it is pronounced the same as the ‘O’.
The River E runs into Loch Mhor in Scotland, which is almost parallel to its considerably larger neighbour, Loch Ness. Its short name is probably descended from the Norse word for a river.
The O is a small tributary of the River Dart that flows across Dartmoor. The origin of the name is debated: it may be a shortening of Ocbroke, meaning oak brook, or it may have once been the Wo, from the Old English word woh, meaning crooked or twisted.
The River D flows west out of Devils Lake in Lincoln County, Oregon, and into the Pacific Ocean – just 120ft away at high tide. It did not have a name until 1940, when the Lincoln City Chamber of Commerce decided to give the shortest river in the world the shortest name possible. There is an entire country called Y – the Vietnamese name for Italy.
Max Davies, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
QUESTION
How did Tammany Hall become a byword for political corruption?
THE Tammany Society, or the Society of St Tammany, was founded in New York on May 12, 1789. It was a branch of a wider network named for a 17th-century Delaware chief.
A number of patriotic societies and political clubs appeared in the 18th century with various rituals and customs. Tammany Hall went as far as to call its meeting hall a wigwam.
It morphed into a stronghold for the Democratic political party.
In 1789, the high-ranking Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr used the society to foster opposition against Federalist Alexander Hamilton’s Society of the Cincinnati.
Following the collapse of the Federalist Party, the Democratic and Republican Party split into opposing factions in 1824. From that time, Tammany Hall leadership mirrored the local Democratic Party’s executive committee.
Though its popularity stemmed from a history of helping New York’s poor and immigrant populations, Tammany Hall became known for corruption and the fixing of elections.
In the 19th century, William M. ‘Boss’ Tweed and his acolytes ruled New York like despots. Through their appointment to various boards and commissions, they exerted control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany.
Matters came to a head in the 1920s and 1930s when Tammany Hall’s operation fell under the influence of New York mobsters such as Lucky Luciano.
The beginning of the end came in 1932 when Mayor Jimmy Walker was forced out of office following allegations of corruption.
The hardships of the Depression made the people intolerant of such misconduct.
In 1933, New Yorkers elected Fiorello LaGuardia as mayor on a fusion ticket, supported by Republicans and Democrats. He was a strong opponent of the Tammany political machine and oversaw its eventual demise.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.