I’m not looking for etymology. This question came up earlier, but there wasn’t a good answer for it.
Where did our concept of the honeymoon as a nuptialation consummation vacation originate?
My guess was that it was the previous century, possibly post-WWII. Vacations didn’t even exist back in olden days, did they? When I’ve heard old people talk about traveling in their yoot, it was typically to spend a few days or so with other relatives, not to head for the beach and buy chintzy souvenirs.
Just to muddy the waters on this.
The OED gives the first use of honeymoon as 1546.
Brewer tells us that a honeymoon is so called from the practice of the ancient Teutons of drinking honey wine (hydromel) for thirty days after marriage.
So that’s clear then.
There’s a humorous passage in War and Peace (1869) in which Tolstoy complains about the newfangled English concept of the honeymoon becoming more popular in Russia. He rants about newly married couples having to spend their first night together in some unfamiliar hotel, rather than in their own comfortable bed.
From this I’d deduce that the concept of the honeymoon probably arose in the 19th century. I was going to give a cite, but it only took a few minutes of digging through War and Peace online to remind me why that was a silly idea.
I have a vague memory of being told in Sunday school that for old-testament Jewa, getting married was a “get out of jail free” card for all social and civil obligations for a year after the marriage. Don’t know how accurate that is, but maybe one of our more learned members can chime in.
BTW What is honeymoon called in other languages? In Swedish it’s smekmånad, ie “caress month”.
No, it just got to Russia late. It’s from an old English(?) Celtic(?) tradition where the bride’s father was to supply the groom with mead (honeywine) for a month after the wedding. It dates back to the early 1500s, at least.
The Devil’s Grandmother:
Yo!
Only for the groom serving in the army, or for anything that will make it necessary for the couple to spend a night apart (the first year, they are not supposed to spend any nights apart, unless one of them is in mourning for a parent, child or sibling).
More similar to the honeymoon, in Jewish practice, is the fact that during the first week following the wedding, the couple is not supposed to spend any time apart (i.e., not in close proximity…obviously, they are not expected to go to the bathroom together, and in synagogues, they are still supposed to be on opposite sides of the Mechitza). However, each of those days they are expected to attend a party in which many other people participate, unlike the seclusion which has become typical for honeymooning couples.
Yes, but the OP asked specifically about the tradition of the honeymoon consummation vacation. While the mead thing may have been where the term originated, nothing in that tradition implies heading off after the wedding to some romantic spot to spend “quality time” alone together. It was to that aspect of the honeymoon that the OP and Tolstoy were referring.
So does anyone have any earlier cites than 1869 for the vacation part of the honeymoon?