Mawage, er, Marriage Proposal Traditions

International Proposal Traditions 

By "international" I mean "outside of the United States". ;)

Ever wondered what other traditions there are out there for marriage proposals? Just how do they do it in a place such as...

Ireland.

They have one such tradition as women proposing to men.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25087659

 But only once every four years. Time and Date (of all places to read about proposals!) say this:

"According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men – and not just the other way around – every four years.
This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how leap day balances the calendar."

This romantic comedy movie is super fun. I highly recommend it.


Australian Aboriginals

Traditionally promised to marriage at age five. Nowadays, Aboriginal people are quite contemporary, especially those who live in country towns or cities.

http://www.cairnsunlimited.com/aboriginalculture.htm

 The Netherlands

Clogs as a marriage proposal, what could possibly be more Dutch than THAT!

Image from creative commons.

One story says that young men once carved clogs to leave on the doorsteps of their chosen ladies, and if she wore them the next day it would signal an acceptance of the marriage proposal. Aww. In contemporary Dutch wedding traditions, some couples may wear clogs for the wedding day and later display them on the walls of their home with dried flowers.

Apparently we also have the Dutch to thank for bridal showers, wishing trees, and lilies of the valley. Ah. Where would today's brides be without those traditions? :)

 Italy
Giving one's true love a lumpy iron band. Cos, you know, nothing says "I love you" more than THAT!

Iron Roman wedding band. Photographed at British Museum, London.

 But Italians being the clever people they are figured out that iron rusts and decided to make them out of gold instead. And then add diamonds. And clasped hands (fede ala Claddagh) style rings thus bringing the tradition full circle from "I own you" to "I promise to marry you/trust you" to "I love you".

There are more traditions over at THIS blog. In the meantime, here's the mawage clip from the Princess Bride.

Your turn! What marriage proposal traditions have YOU heard of that is unusual?

God bless!

Lucy Thompson is a stay-at-home mum to five precocious children and wife to the ultra-handy Dave by day, and a snoop by night, stalking interesting characters through historical settings, and writing about their exploits. Catch her on facebook. She'd love to make a new friend. :)

FRUSTRATED? WHY? It's all so easy.

Yes, occasionally / mostly / often, we writers possess this attitude, sometimes with a vengeance!

Literary agent Rachelle Gardiner received some interesting comments from readers of her blog. They follow:

1. Frustrated at finding the right audience.
2. Frustrated with the marketing side of it. To her it feels so much like a waste of time when she'd rather be writing.
3. One had two agents answering her query saying it was great, but they'd pass.
4.One multi-published author had six different manuscripts out to publishers who asked to see them......several months ago! And still no word.
5. One very frustrated fellow said genres have become restrictive requiring square peg stories to be hammered into round genre holes! He wanted to be able to read a story that sweeps across the literary landscape going wherever the story takes it. Umm, a little like the frustrated author in the cartoon?

What frustrates you most about the whole rigmarole of writing the book, finding an agent, sending in the proposal, then having to market the book you know the whole world wants to read? Aargh!!!
But we are writing faith-based fiction aren't we? 
The following encouragement is from Karen Ball of the Steve Laube Agency:

A woman went to visit her mother, telling her how discouraged she was, how weary of all the struggles in life. The mother took her into the kitchen, set three pots of water on the stove, turned the heat on high. In one pot she put carrots; in the second, she put an egg, in the last, coffee grounds. After about 20 minutes, she turned off the heat, fished out the carrot and the egg, and asked her daughter to what changes had taken place.
“The carrot’s all soft and squishy,” the daughter said, “and the egg is hard boiled.”
The mother then poured the water from the coffee grounds into a mug, and had her daughter sip it.
“What change has taken place?”
The daughter smiled. “The water’s been changed into a delicious coffee.”
The mother put her arm around her daughter. “So then, we have a choice when the heat is on in life. We can grow soft and squishy, like the carrot, or hard inside like the egg. Or we can be like the coffee grounds, and change the water around us into something rich and refreshing.”
Let’s give that a try, friends. Let’s let God use the hard times, the discouragements and frustrations, to refine and perfect us. 

* Rita Stella Galieh, author of two published full length novels, is learning to overcome frustration in her attempts at finding comparable books in a requested proposal. Does anyone else find that an easy task? Apart from ACFW's Fiction Finder and AMAZON, where else can you find such things?