THIS month of June has universal popularity as “the wedding month.” To a certain extent, to be a June bride has become an obsession among young girls.
This writer remembers that when my fiancée candidly expressed her wish to be a June bride 47 long years ago, I said, “Approved without thinking.”
Now I know it was the wrong answer. As a 22-year-old ghost writer for a newspaper columnist in Manila, I had barely saved enough money for a wedding.
But I deceived myself into thinking that a second mouth to feed would not matter.
Though my fiancée was still a student, she was hoping to finish her BSE-Ed course within the second year of our conjugal affair.
I gave in to her wish to be married in June at the Roman Catholic Church of Guadalupe, Makati even if I was not a Catholic. We tied the knot on June 25, 1972 at 2 p.m.
The day started ominously with heavy typhoon rains. By the time I was riding a borrowed car on the way to the church, flood water had risen knee-deep.
I arrived in church in the nick of time.
However, by the time Fr. Francisco San Diego pronounced us newly-wed “man and wife,” the flood water had become so deep that some of our sponsors failed to make it to the wedding reception at the bride’s house in Project 8, Quezon City.
Fortunately, one of our wedding sponsors was the late Dr. Jose Perez, the big boss of the film firm Sampaguita Pictures. He had our carless guests transported to the dinner site by company bus.
The wedding dinner, alas, ended in a “honeymoon” at the De Ocampo Hospital, where I rushed my bride due to a sudden epileptic seizure.
Thereafter, one manageable problem led to financial problems which forced my wife to quit school.
We broke up after eight years and one son. If there was one thing I succeeded in, it was in proving my parents right: that “singles” had to be well-prepared before plunging into “double life.”
Blame Rome for “infecting” Filipinos with the June-wedding tradition. The Romans favored June weddings because that was the month dedicated to Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage. To them there was a practical side: A marriage in June could result in a conception early enough so that a wife wouldn’t be so full with child as to stay at home during the harvest. A June wedding also meant that the baby would be born soon enough for bride to be in shape for the next harvest.
In pre-contraceptive Europe, getting married in June meant that children so conceived would be born the following spring, increasing their chances of survival after the long – and often very lean – winter months.
Even the term “honeymoon” has a historical origin, referring to the first June moon after the summer solstice, which was called the “honey moon.”
Unfortunately, adopting the Roman style makes no sense in Philippine setting. First, June marks the beginning of the rainy season and typhoon visits in the archipelago. Second, students having gone back to school in June, expenses are in high gear. Third, diseases like dengue, influenza and typhoid in this rainy month.
It would be wiser to choose December or January to exchange wedding vows. Christmas and New Year are cold-weather months; they enhance romantic air to the occasion. Finances are also up during these months. (hvego31@gmail.com /PN)
