Birth, marriage and death
Birth, marriage and death. The customs cluster at thresholds, in societies with nothing else in common.
5 practices · what it is for
- Telling the beesRitual and ceremony · HistoricalThe custom of informing a household's bees of a death, a birth or a marriage, and in some versions draping the hive in black or inviting the colony to the funeral. Recorded widely across northern Europe and the eastern United States in the nineteenth century.
- Honey at weddingsCultural use · Local living practiceHoney given to a couple at marriage in several traditions — and a careful look at the honeymoon story, which is repeated everywhere and supported by much less than it appears.
- Honey at birth and namingCultural use · Local living practicePlacing honey on a newborn's lips or tongue is documented across many separate traditions. It is also unsafe, and this page states both facts rather than choosing between them.
- Honey in funerary practiceCultural use · HistoricalHoney poured as a libation to the dead, placed in graves and used in funerary meals across several ancient traditions — kept firmly apart from the much weaker claims about preserving bodies.
- Bee omens and household customCultural use · HistoricalA body of recorded custom treating bees as household members whose behaviour carried meaning: swarms read as omens, bees never sold for money, and the hive kept informed of family events.