January 7: Wedding Month

For the ancient Greeks, january was wedding month. They called it “gamelion”, for “gamos”, meaning “marriage”. (Hence “monogamy”, “bigamy” and “polygamy”.) It was Hera’s month, as she was the patroness of marriage. As a social and economic agreement, a wedding should above all serve the state’s interest. Love had very little to do with it, producing children all the more. Preferable, girls were married out to an older familymember, an uncle was perfect. This way, at least the dowry would stay in the family. When there were more suitors, they would sometimes compete in sports and poetry. But ultimately, it was the father who gave his daughter away, in a very litteral sense of the word. She would then enter her husband’s household, and could only hope the goddess of the hearth, Hestia, would like her. As a precaution, the groom would carry her over the threshold, as that was Hestia’s sacred object. Stepping on it, wouldn’t be a good start, would it? Not in ancient Greece, and not today.