flying poultry

[Helen Winkler <winklerh...>]

I know you can't believe everything on the net, so wanted to get some 
opinions on the custom described below of throwing a hen and a rooster over 
the heads of a newly married couple(and what would the klezmorim have played 
for this ceremony?):

http://www.heritagefilms.com/POLAND.html
Jewish History of Poland
>From Ancient Times Until the Second World War

cultural history of Poland
Moses Mintz describes from his own experience divorce customs in the region 
of Poznan (Responsa (Salonika, 1802), no. 113, fol. 129b). He also describes 
interesting wedding customs in Poland which differed in many details from 
those of Germany: "when they accompany the bride and bridegroom to the 
huppah they sing on the way... they give the bridegroom the cup and he 
throws it down, puts his foot on it and breaks it, but they pour out the 
wine from the cup before they give it to the bridegroom. They have also the 
custom of throwing a cock and also a hen over the head of the bride and 
bridegroom above the canopy after the pronouncing of the wedding blessings" 
(ibid., no. 109, fol. 127a). Thus, in the western and central parts of 
Poland there is evidence of an established and well developed culture and 
some learning, contrasting sharply with the rough and haphazard existence of 
Jews living southwards from Lvov to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitski.
Helen
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