Grido’s Book of Random Facts: Volume. 1

Honeymoon

Why exactly is a Honeymoon called a Honeymoon? Well there’s two possible reasons i’ve come across.

The first being: That in Babylon around 4,000 years ago, for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink, and if i’m anything to go by, then that would be a lot of mead. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month or what we know today as the honeymoon.

The other is: The first recorded appearance of the term honeymoon came in 1546 though, the man would simply abduct the woman of his choice and take her into hiding. This would last at least as long as it took for her angry relatives to stop searching for her. Normally this might be about a month, to follow along with the moon phases again. While in hiding, the couple would partake of mead, which then continues the honey bit of honeymoon.