Honeymoon

Honeymoon refers to a social custom or ritual linked to the transition to marriage that follows the wedding and typically involves a distancing of the newlywed couple from their social network and exemption from nonmarital responsibilities. Although popularly thought to be a uniform custom practiced throughout the ages, the term itself is more recent and the practices defining the experience are far from uniform, although unique to modern societies. This entry discusses the historical development of the honeymoon and the functions of honeymoons.

The term first appeared in Thomas Blount's Glossographia in 1656, in which the definition makes no allusion to any ritual or custom but instead is used to identify a stage in early marriage where love is at first intense and sweet (like honey) but then diminishes like the waning of the moon. The word likely originated from a Northern European tradition where the newlywed couple drank honey mead for the first month of their marriage (the passing of one full moon). There are, however, earlier precedents for certain aspects of the honeymoon ritual. The earliest can be found in the Hebrew Bible book Deuteronomy, where husbands are exempted from military and economic responsibilities for the first year of marriage. Another precursor may have been the Northern European tradition of abducting one's wife from a neighboring village and remaining in hiding for a period when her family would have stopped looking for her (about one month). Although these traditions share some common elements with contemporary honeymoons (exemption from nonmarital responsibilities and distancing from community), neither approaches the sophisticated customs, meanings, or functions of today's honeymoons.