Why honeymoon

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a honeymoon is a holiday spent together by a newly married couple following their wedding day. So the hony moone was the period in your life following your marriage, where everything is sweet and rosy. It also suggests that not ALL moons of married life are to be as sweet as the first.

But when the initial newlywed excitement begins to fade, the realities of a not-so-plain-sailing marriage can start to dawn on you as early as a few months after the big day. You have only just begun your journey together. In the narrative, the word appears after two people get married. The usage explains what the word actually means. And "moon" because it takes a month for the moon to wane and wax anew.

It also alludes to love waning steadily, as the moon does, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The subsequent uses of the word "honeymoon" all basically translate to "a happy period of time following a marriage. By the end of the s, the word also referred to a similar experience in a political context, meaning a short-lived period of goodwill that exists before a relationship turns bad.

Take, for example, a series of lectures about British statesmen by Goldwin Smith from , where he refers to "the brief honeymoon of the new king and his parliament," a moment before Parlimentarian John Pym hadn't yet decided that Charles I should be arrested.

The first native-English usage appeared in , according to the dictionary, in another story collection, this one published in London and written by Maria Edgeworth. Ludgate went down in the hoy to Margate, to spend their honey-moon in style," she writes.

From then on, the usage of the word meant what it means today. Or even better, they drove to a far-off beach somewhere, and spent the night in their VW van. Then time passed by and they realized 20 years later that they never got a chance to take a real honeymoon.

It's kind of sad really. Although it's technically okay to take a mini-moon if you absolutely have to due to timing or funds, make sure that you plan to have a real honeymoon afterwards, and start planning them both at the same time. This will accomplish two things: One - it will get you excited about both trips, and ensure you get that much needed time to focus on each other, and two - you will be able to make longer payments towards the actual trip of your dreams.

A good rule of thumb is that a mini moon should be about 3 nights. Your real honeymoon should be 5 nights or more depending on your destination and how long you can get away. Ideally it should involve you going somewhere that you both have never been.

The idea is to create new memories, while trusting each other to experience and venture in to unfamiliar territories together. You need to get away from the family and work - Do I need to explain this?

Probably not. And, if you have the means, it's easy to understand why. A honeymoon is a time to bond, relax, celebrate as a couple, reflect on your relationship, and look ahead at what's to come. Honeymoons don't always mean lying out on a beach with your loved one, which we'll get into later. But as you consider integrating this post-wedding tradition into your itinerary, questions will likely arise: Do we have to go right after our wedding?

How long should the trip be? What's the average cost? What, exactly, do people do? And what is the origin of honeymoons? Meet the Expert. Read on to learn more about this storied tradition from wedding historian Susan Waggoner, and get answers to every honeymoon question you can think of. Unsurprisingly, honeymoon history is a bit gloomy, just like many wedding traditions. Wedding historian Susan Waggoner says the honeymoon "dates from the days of marriage by capture when, after snatching his bride, the groom swept her away to a secret location, safe from discovery by her angry kin.

After marriage-by-capture ceased to exist, "the honeymoon abduction was practiced in ritual form," Waggoner explains. The word "honeymoon" itself is derived from the Scandinavian practice of drinking mead, or fermented honey, during the first month of the marriage measured by one moon cycle in order to improve the likelihood of conception.

The word also showed up in the s " as a term to warn newlyweds about waning love. So, modern-day romantic honeymoons only became possible with two bits of social progress. First, marriage became less transactional and more about love, and second, industrial progress enabled travel for pleasure. Definitely not. There's no need to jet off as soon as you're done partying and, in fact, you'll appreciate some time to rest between your actual wedding and your getaway.