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I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. One mountain custom was serenading a newly married couple. This loud and upsetting event occurred during the night of their wedding.
Shivaree dated back to sixteenth-century France. A couple was teased on the wedding night. Appalachian folks called this raucous, spontaneous celebration serenading.
The community serenaded the couple about a half hour after they turned out the lights. Neighbors circled the house, and made a loud noise. Folks banged on pots and pans, rang cowbells, and even shot guns. They shouted for the couple to come outside.
Sometimes the serenaders carried the bride in a tub, and the groom rode a rail. One custom including parading the couple to the country store where they were treated to snacks.
The community serenaded Mama and Daddy (Blanche and Rondy Ledford), when they married on June 26, 1938. Neighbors circled the red-plank house. They banged on dishpans, sang, and rode my parents across Swaims Road in wheelbarrows.
After the serenading, they held a shindig. The mountain women prepared tons of food for the celebration. Mrs. Lacey Groves, a neighbor lady, brought her delicious, made-from-scratch marble pound cake. The men picked guitars and sawed fiddles while folks danced the night away.
This old-time mountain tradition has passed away, but remains as a favorite memory how the community serendaded newly married couples.
by: Brenda Kay Ledford
This story appeared in: Our Southern Memories Journal; Volume 18, January/February 2024
