Honeymoon
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224908378
2008-07-10T23:12:40Z
Blanchardb
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Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/68.196.0.123|68.196.0.123]] to last version by Lightbot (using [[WP:HG|Huggle]])
A '''honeymoon''' is the traditional holiday taken by newlyweds to celebrate their marriage in intimacy and seclusion. Today, honeymoons by Westerners are sometimes celebrated somewhere [[exotic]] or otherwise considered special and [[romance (love)|romantic]].
==History==
In [[Western culture]], the custom of a newlywed couple going on a holiday together originated in early 19th century [[Great Britain]]. Upper-class couples would take a "bridal tour", sometimes accompanied by friends or family, to visit relatives that had not been able to attend the [[wedding]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Selling Sex in Honeymoon Heaven|author=[[Ginger Strand]]|publisher=[[The Believer (magazine)|The Believer]]|date=January 2008|url=http://www.believermag.com/issues/200801/?read=article_strand}}</ref> The practice soon spread to the European continent and was known as ''voyage à la façon anglaise'' (English-style voyage) in France from the 1820s on.
Honeymoons in the modern sense (i.e. a pure holiday voyage undertaken by the married couple) became widespread during the [[Belle Époque]],<ref>[[Sylvain Venayre]]. Le Temps du voyage noces. L’Histoire no 321, juin 2007. ISSN 0182-2411 p. 57</ref> as one of the first instances of modern [[mass tourism]]. This came about in spite of initial disapproval by contemporary medical opinion (which worried about women's frail health) and by ''savoir vivre'' guidebooks (which deplored the public attention drawn to what was assumed to be the wife's sexual initiation).<ref>Venayre, op.cit., p. 58</ref> The most popular honeymoon destinations at the time were the [[French Riviera|Côte d'Azur]] and [[Italy]], particularly its seaside resorts and romantic cities such as [[Rome]], [[Verona]] or [[Venice]].
==Origin of the word==
{{wiktionarypar|honeymoon}}
The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' offers no [[etymology]], but gives examples dating back to the 16th century. The Merriam-Webster dictionary reports the etymology as from "the idea that the first month of marriage is the sweetest" (1546).
A honeymoon can also be the first moments a newly-wed couple spend together, or the first holiday they spend together to celebrate their marriage.
{{cquote|The first month after marriage, when there is nothing but [[tenderness]] and [[pleasure]]" ([[Samuel Johnson]]); originally having no reference to the period of a month, but comparing the mutual affection of newly-married persons to the changing moon which is no sooner full than it begins to wane; now, usually, the holiday spent together by a newly-married couple, before settling down at home.}}
One of the more recent citations in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' indicates that, while today ''honeymoon'' has a positive meaning, the word was originally a reference to the inevitable waning of love like a [[moon phase|phase of the moon]]. This, the first known literary reference to the honeymoon, was penned in 1552, in [[Richard Huloet]]'s ''[[Abecedarium Anglico Latinum]]''. Huloet writes:
{{cquote|Hony mone, a term proverbially applied to such as be newly married, which will not fall out at the first, but th'one loveth the other at the beginning excedingly, the likelyhood of their exceadinge love appearing to aswage, ye which time the vulgar people call the hony mone.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}}}
In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough [[mead]] for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. From this practice we get ''honeymoon'' or, as the French say, ''lune de miel''<ref name="Gayre">{{cite book| last=Gayre| first=Robert | title=Wassail! In Mazers of Mead | publisher=Brewers Publications - Boulder, CO |date=1986 | id=ISBN 0-937381-00-4 }}, p.22</ref><ref name="Acton">{{cite book| last=Acton| first=Bryan | title=Making Mead | publisher=The Amateur Winemaker |date=1968 | id=SBN 900841-07-9}}, p.14</ref>
There are many [[calque]]s of the word honeymoon from English into other languages. The [[Welsh language|Welsh]] word for honeymoon is ''mis mêl'' (honey month). In Hebrew it is 'Yerach D'vash translated to honey month (interestingly the word 'Yerach'-Month is very close to the word 'Yare'ach'-Moon. The two words are spelled alike: ירח). In [[Arabic]] it is ''shahr el 'assal'' also translated to honey month. The Spanish word for honeymoon is ''la luna de miel'' (the moon of honey), and the Italian ''luna di miele'' (same translation). The Persian word for it is ''mah e asal'' which has both the translations honeymoon and honey month (''mah'' in Persian meaning both ''moon'' and ''month'').
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Wedding]]
[[ar:شهر عسل]]
[[da:Hvedebrødsdage]]
[[de:Flitterwochen]]
[[es:Luna de miel]]
[[eu:Eztei-bidaia]]
[[fr:Lune de miel]]
[[id:Bulan madu]]
[[it:Luna di miele]]
[[he:ירח דבש]]
[[lt:Medaus mėnuo]]
[[nl:Huwelijksreis]]
[[ja:新婚旅行]]
[[pl:Miesiąc miodowy]]
[[pt:Lua-de-mel]]
[[uk:Медовий місяць]]
[[zh:蜜月]]