From Winter Wedding to May Marriage: A Transition in Dutch Marriage Seasonality

Willem R. J. Vermeulen , Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Frans W. A. van Poppel, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)

Earlier literature on Dutch marriage seasonality focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries, a time during which there was a strong preference to marry in May. Yet, qualitative studies and research in other countries suggest that couples may have married in winter before this pattern emerged. This study investigates how Dutch marriage seasonality changed during the 17th and 18th centuries using about 7 million marriages recorded between 1590 and 1940 in all Dutch provinces. We show that the preference to marry in May emerged in the first half of the 18th century, and that couples did indeed marry during winter before. Based on spatial differences in the emergence of the May marriage pattern and the extent to which couples preferred to marry in May, we link our findings to contract structures and the long period of economic consolidation in the Netherlands following the Rampjaar (Disaster Year), 1672.

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 Presented in Session P1. Fertility, Family, Life Course