PLAGUE WEDDINGS

Weddings held to end plagues

WHILE WE LOOK FOR WAYS TO HAVE DREAM WEDDINGS IN THESE TIMES, HISTORY TELLS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY LENGTHS SOME COUPLES WENT TO IN PAST CENTURIES.

In 1918, when what was known as Spanish flu was devastating populations worldwide, two couples married in a ceremonies designed specifically with the hope of bringing this deadly pandemic to an end by following a tradition going back hundreds of years.

The custom of a shvartse khasene, also known as black or plague weddings, is when a local Jewish community collectively paid for the wedding of a poor or disabled couple who could not afford to get married on their own. Itoriginated in Eastern Europe and versions of the celebrations varied according to the region in which they were held.But everywhere the reasons for the ceremonies were two-fold, to performa good deed and to end God’s divine wrath.

These were full wedding ceremonies,with everything that entailed. And theywere generally boisterous, merry affairs because in those days it was believed that you were more likely to contract such a disease if you were anxious and afraid. In fact, it became popularly accepted that this was the way to ward off the effects of a pandemic and bring joy in the worst of times. And perhaps we can understand this very well today because of our own situation.

What is possibly less understandable is that these weddings were celebrated in cemeteries.One reason being a tradition that the only way to stop a plague was to hold a marriage ceremony in a cemetery.

This was based on the ancient practice of black weddings that took place in eastern European Jewish communities during outbreaks of Cholera and other plagues. There were no signs that they were successful. And on religious grounds they were condemned by community leaders. But couples who held such weddings considered that seeing what should have been a joyful ceremony in such a dreadful setting would provoke pity from God, who would then show mercy by ending the pandemic.

This provided a symbolic source of security which made the whole practice hard to suppress. People approved of the generosity of spirit and sacrifice shown by the couples taking part and the practice actually continued into the 20th century, especially during the great Spanish flu pandemic.

Reports of these weddings were carried in newspapers and for the most part they were strongly criticised for having no true or recognised linksto religion, and bringing disgrace on the community as a whole.

However, they continued and, far from suppressing the epidemics that prompted them, they obviously just spread the sickness – hardly surprising when you consider that several hundred guests would often attend and social distancing was yet to be invented.

Butrecords tell that when the Spanish flu finally died down in1920, Harry Rosenberg and Fanny Jacobsand Rose Schwartz and Abraham Lachterman, the couples whose weddings had prompted either gratitude or disgust two years earlier,were eventually recognised. They were honoured for their sacrifice and service to their communities.