There was a custom of “serenading” the bride and groom in this area. An Internet search brought up the word “chivary,” calling it an old English custom practiced in America.  

Chivary was quite common in the Appalachian Mountains. It described the activity as part of a post wedding ceremony where the bride and groom were teased and pranks were played on their wedding night.  

According to custom here in our community, it was common for some of the family to slip around and fix up the couple’s bedroom before the honeymoon night. Couples often found the bed linens short sheeted. Sometimes the bride or groom’s gown or union suit might have been sewn shut. They likely found raw grits, rice or finely cut bristles from a shaving brush in their bed linens. Cowbells were hung under the bedsprings.  

My great aunt recalls finding a baby crib in the room and photographs of all of the old girl friends of her husband all over the room, thanks to her sister-in-laws. Often the vehicle to leave the wedding in was pushed way down the road or the wheels were jacked up so it would not move.

Seats from the early cars and trucks went missing when the bride and groom went to leave and oil was poured out of lamps and replaced by water. In one instance, the groom’s wagon was dismantled and the wheels put up on top of a shelter. One groom found his horse had been whitewashed. An older couple on their second marriage found a hen and biddies in the bedroom on the night after the wedding.  When a couple was to marry, his cousin went in to “trick” the bed and found the groom’s mother in the bed who reared up and said, “Who is that?”, so the groom had outwitted his pranksters.  

The mischief like tying bells to springs was referred to as “tricking” the bedroom and there were many ways to do so. We think now cans tied to the car and a shower of rice, shaving cream and toilet paper are a nuisance.  

The “Serenade,” as it was known around our area, came a few nights after the wedding, usually after the couple had turned out the lights to go to bed. Although they knew to expect this, they were startled with extremely loud noises, singing and all kinds of pranks occurred.

They did not know exactly when this would take place, although it was a possibility. One noisemaker was the hanging of a circular saw blade over a tree limb with a rope and hitting it making awfully loud noises. Pots were pounded with big spoons. A nail driven into a board with a string tied to it covered in rosin could be rubbed with paper to make a very loud obnoxious noise. Singing and the playing of some instruments like harmonicas, fiddles or makeshift instruments was common. Gun shots rang out quite often.

It was customary for the couple to invite their visitors in for refreshments. They were given time to get up and get dressed while the noise went on outside. In many cases, it seems that cake was left with the couple and that they had something on hand suitable to serve thanks to their families.  

An article in the New York Times from May 1878 says that the tradition was courteous and necessary and that the custom came from the ancient Greeks. This article tells of a man with a dying mother and rheumatic father in Wisconsin. He married and took the bride for an overnight trip after the wedding then arrived with her to share the home with his parents.  

On the first night they were serenaded with the usual tin pan band and a horse fiddle. He invited them in for whiskey. They exhausted his supply and word of his hospitality spread. On the second night, another group came and again serenaded.  his time he had no whiskey to share but offered all of his supply of beer.  

By the third night, when the third group arrived to entertain him and his bride, dying mother and ailing father, he had had enough, so he invited them in and offered them his two bulldogs and lead shot from his guns. Likely this was an exaggerated story.  

The Victorian view was rather a comic one when it came to marriage and those who took it with humor fared far better than those who objected to the custom of the serenade.

Today weddings have all kinds of parties and events for the couple. Times have changed. Apparently “Serenading” was quite common in the 19th and early 20th centuries here in Effingham County. The last ones to do so in our area were probably in the late 1950s and by the early 1960s the custom was pretty much abandoned.

Many thanks to each of you who contributed to this story.

Historic Effingham Society still has our 2010 Wedding Calendars available for your purchase of $6 each in the Effingham Museum Gift Shop and local businesses. We appreciate your support of our organization through these sales.

This was written by Susan Exley of Historic Effingham Society. If you have photos, comments or information to share, contact Susan Exley at 754-6681 or email her at: susanexley@historiceffinghamsociety.org.