Pure and simple
The rituals surrounding wedding food interests me most and some time ago I looked at the pattern of Irish wedding food in the 19th and early 20th century. What follows are some of the findings and it's clear that whatever the economic standings of the parties involved, they strove to extend generous hospitality with such flamboyant effort so as not to taint their reputation with undertones of meanness or want.
Do things ever change? One of my favourite passages comes from Robert Bell, an Englishman who travelled through Ireland at the beginning of the 19th century and he observed of the Irish wedding: "The chief personage was the parish priest, or his deputy. The next in pre-eminence was the squire, but it was not every country gentlemen who could attain the honour of being present at a wedding feast: if he had not resided long in the neighbourhood, if he had not by a gentle and familiar deportment, but above all, by conversing with the peasants in the Irish language, commanded their esteem, and conciliated their affections, he would not have been invited."
