Back to Weddings Main Bellings, Hope Chests Are Valley Traditions This photo of a bride and bridesmaid was taken by Dean Studio, Harrisonburg. The historical society has no further information about the photo. Shelvie Carr remembers taking part in an old-fashioned “Belling” when she was about 10 years old. Her uncle had married several weeks before, Carr recalled, and he and his wife had settled into their home in Rockingham County. A dozen or so family members gleefully planned to carry out the noisy Valley tradition on the newlyweds. “It was all secret, you know,” said Carr, a member of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society. Her father carried a large bell; others carried saws and various noisemakers. The revelers crept quietly to the newlyweds’ home, then began making an awful racket as they circled the house. Eventually, Carr said, the couple came out to greet the noisy bunch. And the new wife had a surprise of her own — she’d prepared drinks and cookies in case any “unexpected” guests showed up. The evening ended merrily, with everyone in the kitchen for snacks, she said. Like the boisterous practice of “belling,” some wedding traditions of the Valley decades ago have become distant memories. On the other hand, some folk beliefs have held on, and remain fixtures at modern Valley weddings. Based on accounts gathered by the historical society, Valley weddings of yesteryear bear some resemblance to today’s celebratory affairs — with some twists. Most girls in the Valley looked forward to their wedding day, and they prepared for it by keeping a trousseau, said Dale MacAllister, president of the historical society. Taken from the French word for “bundle,” the trousseau included linens, flatware, clothing and other items important to the couple’s new life. Those things were kept in a wooden hope chest, MacAllister said. The bride-to-be often wore a special gown, but she’d usually save it to wear on special occasions throughout her life, Carr said. Because of that, many of the dresses prior to 1900 featured familiar fancy touches — lace collars and colorful insets, decorative buttons and embroidery — but rarely were white. A recent clothing exhibit at the historical society featured several Victorian-era wedding gowns, she said, including a long navy blue gown with a peacock inset and bustle and a pale green dress embossed with holly berries. Many wedding ceremonies were low-key affairs, with the bride and groom simply going to the minister’s home to marry, Carr said. Other couples chose to hold an intimate service in the living room of the bride’s parents’ home. Carr’s home outside Harrisonburg was the site of several such weddings, including one held on the front porch, she said. In the summer, however, many couples chose to stage large outdoor weddings, complete with dozens of guests and tables loaded with food. Valley residents also attached a variety of superstitions to the wedding, MacAllister said. In the 1960s, Elmer Smith compiled a list of those traditions, many of which were brought here by German immigrants and practiced by their descendants. Some folk beliefs were thought to presage the couple’s life together. A rainy wedding day meant a marriage filled with tears. For good luck, eat bread and butter and black-eyed peas on the day of the wedding. Do not hold the ceremony when the hands of the clock are moving “downward;” hold it after the half-hour, when the clock hands swing upwards, to ensure a happy marriage. Some superstitions were preserved in verse, MacAllister said. “To change the name and not the letter/Is a change for the worst, not the better,” was one Valley belief. “Married in May, you’ll rue the day/Marry in Lent, you will live to repent,” told of times to avoid marrying. And then, there’s the familiar wedding ditty from the Victorian era: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” which linked the couple to friends and family of the past while ensuring happiness and fidelity for the future, MacAllister said. Valley folks would have added yet another line, for wealth: “And a silver sixpence in your shoe.” After the wedding, Carr said many couples in the Valley did what her grandparents, John Myers and Ada Virginia Ritchie Myers, did after they married in 1908. “They came into Harrisonburg to marry, then took the train west to visit relatives,” she said. Contact Rachel Bowman at 574-6280 or rbowman@dnronline.com Back to Weddings Main