Sunday Word: Shivaree

[sallymn]

noun:
1 a mock serenade with kettles, pans, horns, and other noisemakers given for a newly married couple.
2 (informal) an elaborate, noisy celebration.

Examples:

This Monday night shivaree is ideal to calm those who got too excited opening Christmas gifts. (Nick Canepacolumnist, Column: Nick Canepa’s Chargers grades vs. Tennessee Titans, The San Diego Union-Tribune, December 2022)

To the kids it meant running around the house beating on pots and buckets and dishpans, having a wonderful time making the biggest and worst racket possible. To the women it meant preparing and toting a mountain of food and doing a lot of gabbing and staying busy in the kitchen. To the young man getting married, well, the shivaree was something to be real glad when it was over. (Tennessee Ernie Ford, This is my Story, This is my Song)

The shivaree starts just after dark and includes loud banging, hollering, and serenading. Putting the couple in a wheel barrel and pushing them around is sometimes part of the fun as well. (June Is The Time For A Shivaree, Blind Pig and the Acorn, June 2008)

Jest the same it 'ud sure surprise me if we didn't git some sort of a shivaree pahty afteh nightfall. (J Allan Dunn, Rimrock Trail)

I wanted to keep Man sober, and I tried to get him and his wife out of town before that shivaree of yours was pulled off. (B M Bower, Lonesome Land)

Origin:

In 19th century rural America, a newly-married couple might be treated to a mock serenade, performed with pots, pans, homemade instruments, and other noisemakers. Such cacophonous serenades were traditionally considered especially appropriate for second marriages or for unions deemed incongruous because of an age discrepancy or some other cause. In the eastern US this custom, imported from rural England, was simply called a 'serenade' or known under various local names. In much of the central US and Canada, however, it was called a 'shivaree,' a loan from French charivari, which denotes the same folk custom in France. In more recent years, 'shivaree' has also developed broader senses; it is sometimes used to mean simply 'a cacophony' or 'a celebration.' (Merriam-Webster)

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Such cacophonous serenades were traditionally considered especially appropriate for second marriages or for unions deemed incongruous because of an age discrepancy or some other cause.

Vance Randolph’s Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales (1945) includes an account of a similar ceremony used to pillory what the community deemed inappropriate sexual behavior: in “The Girls From Joplin”, the women of Honey Creek, Missouri drive two big-city sex workers out of town in a Walk of Shame to the tune of clanging pots and pans. (“Told by an elderly gentleman in Neosho, Mo., February 1928. He thought that it was a true story, and said that such incidents were not uncommon in the 1890’s.”)

[sallymn]

Oooh, thank you! :)

[med_cat]

What a fun word ;)

[sallymn]

I thought so! Though I wouldn't like to have to be the guest of honour at one!

[med_cat]

No...too noisy ;)