The following is Irma Eguia's account of the wedding traditions of Mexico. She was kind enough to let me publish it as a point of comparison with the wedding songs of Sappho, in which happiness is often mixed with sadness. The Greek wedding focused on the transfer of the bride from one home and family to another, making Irma's observations all the more relevant.

I was relating what you talked about in class yesterday to something that I had already thought about. You were talking about the the old women who sing laments at weddings for the bride who is leaving her home and her family. Well, a couple of weeks ago I went down to mexico for an uncle's wedding. The custom down in our part of mexico is that because it is so hard to build a house from the ground up what many couples do is that the groom might add a room or two to his parent's house and that is where he and his new wife will live until they build their own home. My uncle added a room on top of my grandmother's home. And so my mom and aunts were cleaning and sweeping it getting it ready for my uncle and his wife.

The wedding has three parts. First there is the civil wedding, and I am not sure if I have it exactly right but I think that is the same as getting married by court here. That takes place at the bride's home and the family has to prepare food to serve to the guests. A judge comes out and performs the ceremony and the witnesses and bride and groom sign the legal papers. Then the church ceremony takes place at whatever church, and finally the reception.

All of that took place on a Saturday. We were there with the bride's family and guests. Then on Sunday what is supposed to happen is that if there is any food left over and cake the groom's family has to go and give it away before it spoils. So anyway my point of this whole story is that that on Sunday of course by the time we got to my grandma's house my uncle and his new wife were up and ready and on their way to her parents house to take cake and leftover food from the night before. I made the comment that it must be weird for the bride - one day she is at home with her parents and the next day she is in a totally different house with people she doesn't know. I thought about how I would feel if it was me going through that and I made light of the moment saying that when I get married after the wedding night i would tell my boyfriend "OK im going home, we'll see each other tomorrow!". Everyone laughed. But my point is I can see why the old women would lament for the bride leaving her home and having to wake up the next day in a different environment, in someone elses home.