h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I really love this entry and find myself agreeing with everything you say, but I have a query.

I was recently looking for unusual quotes to add to a friends Wedding card. If anyone has done this they will know there are far more quotes putting down marriage than positive uplifing ones...but I digress. Amongst the good and the bad was this:

Marry Monday, marry for wealth;
Marry Tuesday, marry for health;
Marry Wednesday, the best of all;
Marry Thursday, marry for crosses;
Marry Friday, marry for losses;
Marry Saturday, no luck at all.

(Stevenson's Book of Quotations 3rd ed. page 1267)


Now, you will note, by this nursery rhyme, Wednesday is the best day for marriage.

But also note, that Sunday is missing completely from this list and....if you add this together with all those negative quotes I mentioned above, I think another line could be drawn. This one concerning marriage itself.

Just remember that the bible doesn't mention a marriage ceremony anywhere (except the one Jesus was invited to when he turned water into wine). The bible says that man leaves his family and becomes one with his wife.....but doesn't mention ceremony, cake or certificate.

So, I was wondering if marriage, as an institution, best done on such a cursed day as Wednesday... is not in fact also a work of the devil?

Share your thoughts

I'm afraid I'm a bit too young to comment on marriage, but your post sent me searching in the concordance. Being Jewish, I'm sorry to say I don't have much knowledge in the New Testament; but in the Old Testament there are actually quite a number of references to people getting married, or marrying their daughters. The ceremony itself does not seem to be mentioned anywhere, so I guess that the question whether there were cakes, bridesmaids, wedding cards or marriage certificates is a matter for archeologists to determine.
Anyway, as for that nursery rhyme, there seems to be a simple explanation: it was created by the devil, who in its clever way assimilated it into our culture by using the pattern of known nursery rhymes. This might explain why Sunday is missing, and saturday and Friday are said to be unlucky. The devil would want people to get married in the day when his influence is strongest, not in any of the days that are considered holy (holy for Jews, Christians and Muslims, at any rate)!