Our mothers, and even more so our grandmothers, remember the wedding trousseau well . Sometimes they talk to us about it with a thread of irony mixed with nostalgia, because after all it is a memory linked to one of the most important moments of their life. Instead, we are horrified, good-naturedly of course, at the thought of those embroidered sheets, linen linens, crocheted embroidery and other accessories that absolutely do not reflect our tastes.
Yet, for the women of yore, there was no choice. Neither for the content of the trousseau, nor for the trousseau itself since this was prepared by mothers at an early age , even before the daughters were promised in brides. In short, it was a really serious thing.
This is because in factthe trousseau was associated with the dowry and indeed, perhaps it was its most visible part. There was personal linen and that of the house, there were cutlery and silverware, there was a social status that was inevitably represented by all the objects that with sacrifice and effort were purchased, made and embroidered by hand by the women of the family since the birth of the child.
trousseau
And even if today that of trousseau is a tradition very distant from us, which however still exists and is honored in some parts of Italy, it is still a piece of our history that we want to retrace today with you.
Index
- What is the kit
- What was inside the kit
- Where it was used
- Difference with the dowry
- The kit today
What is the trousseau
There are women who do not want to know about getting married, while others are anxiously awaiting that day. We do not know if the women of the past were enthusiastic or not to get married, especially if we consider the fact that not too long marriage was for us almost an obligatory stage of a life path that saw us, before women, wives and moms.
This is demonstrated by the fact that families, once the daughter was born, began to collect the necessary resources to create the trousseau that would then be given to the future spouses for the wedding. A tradition, this, strongly linked to the dowry, which belonged to every family in Italy.
It was a kind of thanksand recognition to the future husband who would welcome that woman into his family and take care of her . In addition to the trousseau, in fact, the bride’s family used to give land properties and sums of money, her famous dowry, in fact.
Although the tradition today has been abandoned, or in any case widely revisited, for the more nostalgic the wedding trousseau remains a family memory linked to the past and to the memories of a very important day. Try asking your mothers and grandmothers about this, we are sure that some items of the trousseau are still jealously guarded by them ready to be given to grandchildren and great-grandchildren. What was inside the kit
The kit was usually made up of some items for personal use and others for the home. Obviously the value of its content also changed according to the class of belonging of the bride’s family. In general, however, we started with at least 6 items for the house which included sheets, towels, tablecloths and household linen.
As for the personal part, however, this included nightgowns, hand-embroidered handkerchiefs and underwear, elements always and in any case chosen by mothers. Even if the value of the trousseau was inevitably correlated to the financial resources of the families, for these it was still one of the most important investments to make in life .
1970 wedding, vintage photo (123RF) Where it was used
The tradition of the wedding trousseau was rooted throughout the Italian territory and, with a greater propensity in the regions of Southern Italy, where it is still alive, albeit revisited and modernized. In general, it is the South of our boot that holds the primacy of this custom , here the women of the family devoted most of their time to embroidery and the creation of household linen for future brides.
On the whole national territory, however, when the daughter was still a child, trunks and suitcases began to be filled with all the elements necessary for the trousseau and were expanded over the years and preserved as a precious treasure .Difference with the dowry
The wedding trousseau, we said, has always been closely linked to the dowry . In the past centuries, in fact, marriage was treated first as a business, then as a must, in fact. If we think that in the early twentieth century, women were betrothed, we can get a clearer picture. Those were the times when the head of the family decided the fate of women and his daughters : so behold, marriage was transformed into a contract.
And in this ancient act also appeared the dowry, or the set of goods conferred on the husband as recognition of the fact of taking charge of the future bride, but also for the matrimonial obligations deriving from the marriage life. Once the dowry was obtained, the woman was out of her paternal control. The dowry was the only thing that belonged to the daughter, because according to the law the only sons to inherit were the sons (the 1975 Family Law Reform will change things).
The dowry consisted of land, property or sums of money and, again, precious jewels and silverware. It also included the famous trousseau. For women from less well-off families, the lack of a dowry was a real problem that made it more difficult for them to find a husband.
After the wedding, however, the dowry did not become the property of the husband but was managed by him and, in the event of death, it returned to the family to which it belonged. The trousseau today
Today we no longer talk about wedding trousseau, or at least not as it was once understood. The future spouses, in fact, are still helped by the families to have everything they need for the house once they are married. But to this, today, there is also the famous wedding list which can include some of those elements once destined to the kit, up to appliances and super technological inventions that today we all want to have at home. Or the honeymoon list, thanks to which the guests contribute to the honeymoon of the newlyweds. In fact, nowadays many of the couples who decide to get married already live together or prefer to buy each other how and when they prefer furnishings, appliances and various things.
Parents and grandparents, however, retain a fundamental role in the marriage of their children. Not only for a concrete contribution in the purchase of these things, but also because often among the gifts there are silver trays, embroidered sheets or porcelain sets that are handed down over time for their economic and symbolic value.
Embroidered sheets
