Witch Watch: Wedded bliss: Folklore is a sure way to the altar

Redford Observer, June 5, 1975 (enlarge)

Wedding traditions and superstitions go right over my head as a male. However, the last paragraph concerning "shivaree" is interesting enough to pass along. Shivaree, in Gundella's words goes something like this:

In the middle of the night everyone would go to the place where the bridal pair were sleeping and make loud noise by banging tin pans together, beating kettles with spoons, ringing cow bells, blowing horns, and whooping and yelling until the bride and groom appeared at the window and threw them candy, tobacco or coins. Nobody I've met here in the suburbs seems to know this custom, and it's no longer practiced even in my home town.