November Wedding

Posted by Smokey Stover on November 10, 2008 at 17:01

In Reply to: November Wedding posted by ESC on November 09, 2008 at 15:00:

: : Why is a November Wedding bad and where does the phrase originate?

: : In the film The Pure Hell of St. Trinians Joyce Grenfell says "this is turning into a November Wedding in more ways than one". This implies that a November Wedding means something specific.

: I couldn't find anything.

It seems to me there are only two possible meanings of the phrase. One is, obviously, a wedding held in November, with whatever further considerations this may entail in regard to weather, warmth, etc. A corollary of "a November wedding" is that it is NOT a June wedding, and perhaps remarkable only in that regard.

The other would indicate that one or both parties were in the November of their lives, that is, at the end of autumn, just before winter and the coming end of the days by which we mark our calendar. November is often thought of as chilly and grey, or in some zones rainy or misty. As Sir Walter Scott says, at the beginning of Marmion:

"November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear ...."