Combined marriages and Hyloping
Let’s see now the two kind of weddings: “the combined marriage” and the “hyloping”
With regards to the combined wedding the mother of the young man (close to the age of 26 and after he paid his service in the army) used to search and choose a local girl (which in Sicily means from the same town) and not a foreigner. Very often a meaningless excuse was good to get in touch with the girl mother. Once the agreement was done the two ladies started to fill out a dowry list. Here the girl mother was committed to keep the promise to provide the daughter of any single item of the dowry.
The dowry, once completed was very well displayed at home in order all the family and friends could see and admire it.
The hylop
It is an escape of the two lovers which was put in act especially when the two families were against the union. The couple was often helped out by a relative or a close friend and the wedding was the only way to fix the weird act up! The necessary time which would validate the hylop and the following wedding was at least three days. That was the the time they believed necessary to “consume the wedding”.
In Sicily the repairing wedding is not based on an evident pregnancy, buti it was rather connected to the idea that the girl was not vergin anymore after the hylop and consequently not good to marry by anyone!
It seemes to we are talking about the drama of Romeo and Juliet, but with different happy ends.