The Bride bringing Tradition / Ritual in Saraifaria | World Anvil
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The Bride bringing

The Story goes that maiden brides are a prime target for abduction by fay, dragons fiends and other dark forces. Therefore a bride is escorted to the church on her wedding day by an armed escort, this applies to even the lowliest peasant girl.

History

The tradition dates back to the emancipation of the humans, at first it only applied to especially valuable woman, and slowly evolved to include every maiden that was about to be married.   In 875 there started a tradition of young boys to dress up like dark forces trying to reach the bride, there aim would be to manage to touch the bride before being driven off by the guards.   In Tir Caeau Euraidd this later tradition fell out of favor in 1387 after an sharp increase in reported attacks on brides by the desensitizes of the dark. In the period from 1400 to 1430 there is reported close to a hundred attacks and 6 lost brides. 17 members of the escort have died ad many more have been wounded.

Execution

The armed guard collects the bride at there residence and escorts her to the church. If the bride lives a short way from the church it is customary to take a detour to the so that the trip is at least a quarter mile.     Failure to bring the bride to the church brings shame to the liege and the escorting soldiers therefore it is common for knights to fight to the death to defend a random peasant bride they have no relation to.

Participants

In villages it is customary that one or more mounted soldiers and two or more soldiers on foot. In Town it is customary that four or more foot soldiers in ceremonial armor comprise the escort.   More wealthy family's often provide there own guards in addition to the one provided by the liege.

Observance

All brides that is married for the first time is expected to be shown this honor. A bride getting married for the second time is not considered a target for the dark forces as it is not expected that she is a virgin
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