Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding

Subject: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: cnd
Date: 30 May 24 - 08:58 AM

I've seen from a number of websites and magazines that there's a supposed southern American superstition of burying a bottle of bourbon a month ahead of time to help prevent rain on a wedding day. Some purveyors also claim you have to place it upside down. Then after a (hopefully dry) wedding, the couples digs up the bottle and drinks some of it.

Having never heard of this tradition despite living in the south my whole life, I was a bit skeptical. It seems to really have taken off in popularity around 2017, when a number of websites started running articles on the tradition. The earliest reference to the act I've found was in 2011 (link), and the next oldest reference from 2014 (link).

Given this, I have to think this is one of those phony bogus modern traditions perpetuated by some TV show or something, but I haven't seen anything to discuss it otherwise. I'm especially doubtful because a) all the articles I've found are nothing but vague platitudes about "southern traditions" and "legend says" (but never cover any details or cite a reference), and b) a LOT of the South is very conservative about alcohol in general and liquor in particular.

So, am I just being a doubting Thomas, or has anyone ever heard of this in a setting prior to 2011?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: Helen
Date: 30 May 24 - 01:57 PM

Hi cnd,

I've never heard of that tradition, but that means little because I live in Australia. My take on it is that I think your assessment is likely to be correct. I suspect it is a social media thing which has taken off but which has no roots in real tradition. I agree that a TV show, one of those loosely described as "reality TV" could be to blame.

When I did a quick internet search using the search term "bury a bottle for a wedding" one of the quick suggestion terms on the search page was "bury a bottle of whiskey for a wedding" but the others mentioned bourbon, and even when I clicked on the whiskey line it showed bourbon related results and all of the pages were very recent.

I'll be interested in any information which sheds light on this mystery.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: Helen
Date: 30 May 24 - 02:27 PM

And I suspect that because the supposed tradition calls for an expensive bottle of bourbon the chances are high that it is a marketing ploy by a specific brand to increase sales.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: cnd
Date: 30 May 24 - 05:09 PM

No further progress, but perhaps it has its roots in Starka, from eastern Europe. "Tradition had it that at a child's birth, the father of the house poured large amounts of home-made spirits... into an empty oak barrel... The barrel was then sealed with beeswax and buried, only to be dug out at the child's wedding"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 May 24 - 07:27 PM

I Googled bury bourbon wedding and came up with lots. Apparently, it's a Southern custom.

We Catholics have a tradition of burying a statue of St. Joseph upside down in our garden if we want to sell our house. I was friends with a bunch of nuns who I thought were too sophisticated to believe in such nonsense, but they buried St. Joe in their garden and sold their convent, and moved to Chicago. Poof! No more convent. No more nuns. And they were such nice nuns, too. Such a shame.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: gillymor
Date: 30 May 24 - 07:49 PM

I married my first wife in Alabama and though she was brought up Catholic we had a Southern Baptist ceremony out of respect for her father's enormous family. Consequently the reception was dry as a bone and if I was aware of the tradition of buried bourbon I would have been out in the field next to the hall in my white linen suit with a shovel.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: Helen
Date: 30 May 24 - 07:52 PM

cnd, the tradition from Starka seems vaguely familiar, i.e. when a child is born buy a good quality bottle of wine, for example, which will presumably improve with age and then retrieve it at the child's coming of age or wedding.

If the wine and/or the child have not improved with age, it might still be appropriate. LOL

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 May 24 - 09:54 AM

If you make your own wine, Helen, much depends on whether you remember to decant it in time. I celebrated the birth of our firstborn by starting a demijohn of what I dubbed Ginger Nuke (it had the "don't nod your head" nature); but life intervened, the yeast turned cannibal, and the wine had to be thrown away.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: cnd
Date: 31 May 24 - 10:39 AM

Thanks Joe, I've never heard of the Catholic burying St. Joseph thing. Intriguing. And thanks Helen for your earlier responses, which I overlooked. Always nice to have a second set of eyes to parse over the logic. I'll keep searching.

gillymor -- can't say I'd blame ya!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: Rain Dog
Date: 02 Jun 24 - 03:31 AM

A good few years ago now, when I was attending a cousin's wedding in Ireland, I first heard about the custom of leaving out a statue of the 'Child of Prague' to ensure good weather for the weather.

From Wikipedia

"In Ireland, the statue is popular and is called "Child of Prague". A wedding gift of a statue of the Child of Prague is particularly auspicious. Irish brides hoping for good luck and good weather on the wedding day ritually place a copy of the statue outside their homes.[21] Devotion to the Child of Prague and belief in its power to influence the weather is still strong in many parts of Ireland. It is also common to see the Child of Prague displayed in the window of houses in some of the older parts of Dublin and the practice of putting it out in the hedge or burying it in the garden as a solicitation for good weather is widespread in areas as far apart as Cork, Dublin, Sligo and the county of Leitrim.[22]"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Burying Bourbon Before Wedding
From: Helen
Date: 02 Jun 24 - 03:37 AM

At a friend's outdoor wedding a few years ago, when the happy couple made a comment about the light rain which fell during the ceremony I said it was probably an auspicious sign of future good fortune due to the extended drought Australia had been experiencing.

Horses for courses, I guess. :-)