Re: chairs and weddings

[Wholesale Klezmer Band <ganeydn...>]

Although I don't know how far back the custom goes, both lifting the couple
on chairs and Keytsad Merakdim Lif'ney Hakale (How do we dance before the
bride) are aspects of the custom of treating the bride and groom as royalty
on their wedding day.  The bride and groom are seated like queen and king
and the guests dance to entertain them.  The bride is pushed across the
floor because as queen she is not expected to exert herself to dance.
Lifting the bride and groom on chairs is in imitation of royalty being
carried in sedan chairs.

In Jewish tradition everyone is equal and therefore everyone has the
opportunity to be royalty.  In the song "Yontev Peysekh" (recorded by
Adrienne Cooper on "Dreaming in Yiddish") it says that on the holidays,
"Yeder yid iz bay zikh a meylekh." (Every Jew is a king.)  Our view of
royalty, in comparison the royalty of God, is that real kings and queens
are only pretenders.  So, when we lift the bride and groom, we don't carry
them in a stately fashion, we dance with them, mocking the seriousness of
earthly royalty.

In the "mezinke tants" the parents of the mezinke (youngest and last to be
married off daughter upon her marriage) are also given the royal treatment.
They are seated and crowned with wreaths (the dance is also called a
krenzl--little crown) and people dance around them hugging and kissing them.

Since bar and bas mitzves were not celebrated with big parties and
musicians in the old days, people make up and adapt new customs, and since
our dance traditions come from weddings, the honoree is treated like the
bride and groom at a wedding. Parents and siblings treated like royalty
too?  Why not?  They're part of the royal family of the day.

Zayt gezunt (be healthy),

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn


At 7:27 PM -0400 7/14/99, Helen Winkler wrote:
>A few days ago the question about the origin of the custom of raising the
>bride and groom on chairs at weddings came up.  Today, I was watching a
>video of the Chasidic dance called "Keysad Herokdin Lefnay Hakale."
>Interestingly, the bride was seated on a chair during the dance and at a
>certain point in the dance a group of people pushed the chair across the
>floor as part of the dance.  Perhaps the chair raising is a variation on
>this theme.
>Sincerely,
>Helen
>
>
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