Where Does The Niagara Falls Honeymoon Tradition Originate?
For 2 centuries, Niagara Falls has been associated with honeymoons. The origins of this tradition have been thoroughly explored by writer Ginger Strand, and a full detailed summary of her findings can be read at http://www.believermag.com/issues/200801/?read=article_strand
The tradition of a post marriage honeymoon is only a few centuries old, as couples, in many historical and modern traditions retire to the groom’s home immediately after the ceremony. Ginger found that the Niagara tradition grew out of an old European tradition of the post-nuptial grand European tour, which was a popular way for a couple to get to know one another after the public ceremony. In part, according to Ms. Strand, the tradition allowed the wife to visit places the husband had frequented alone, before the marriage. And according to her, the timid Victorian women were often embarrassed to acknowledge publicly that they were newly weds
Some of the earliest famous honeymooner’s to visit Niagara Falls included Aaron Burr’s daughter and Napoleon Bonaparte brother’s.
Honeymoons to Niagara Falls increased after the completion of the Erie Canal made transportation to the North more convenient. In fact, the tradition had grown so much by 1845, that a popular song glorified the growing practice:
” To see the Falls they took a ride
On the steamship ‘Maid o’ the Mist;’
She forgot the Falls she was so busy
Being hugged and kissed. “
In the post Victorian early 2oth century, women dropped their discomfort about the newly wed image. “Frapper dress,” was in vogue ,and a 1927 news article described a young couple who had eloped to Goat Island; the picturesque island which separates the American and Canadian Falls.
By the early 1920s the Niagara Fall’s honeymoon status were taking on an amplified public status. The City of Niagara Falls ran a contest to find the oldest living couple who had honeymooned at the falls. The winners, an octogenarian couple from Philadelphia won an all expense paid second honeymoon package to the falls.
In the 1940s and 1950s,.a series of Hollywood Movies glorified the falls. The first two flicks depicted unwed couples who were swept into marriage by a vacation to Niagara City. The third movie, staring Marilyn Monroe, portrayed a visit to the falls by a couple who had honeymooned there years earlier. Ironically, the wife in the film, portrayed by Marilyn, was plotting to kill her husband. Nevertheless, the movie spawned a renewed Niagara honeymoon fever. Niagara was, by now, known as the “Honeymoon Capital,” of the country.
The last 40 years have seen a commercialization of the Niagara wedding and honeymoon package. The falls has been challenged by more and more tough competition as alternatives, such as
the “destination ” wedding package, offer exotic competition to a Niagara Falls honeymoon.
Nevertheless, Niagara remains as an American iconoclastic symbol of the honeymoon and past-marriage period when couples “take the plunge,” into the sometimes initially turbulent water of married life.
Thanks to Toronto Town Car Plus for sponsoring this article. Toronto Town Car Plus offers Niagara Limo and Niagara airport taxi service, and Niagara tours and transportation from all parts of Ontario. Niagara Limo
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