Di Venere e di Marte né si sposa né si parte

Title: The Days of Mars and Venus

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Nancy Canepa has been an Italian professor at Dartmouth College since 1989. She is descended from Italian immigrants on her father’s side. Her paternal grandmother is from the Lombardy region of Italy, and her paternal grandfather is from the Liguria coast. She has attended two Italian weddings. Her husband is from the Apulia region of Italy.

Contextual Data:

Social/Cultural Context: In Italy, a common superstition is that it is bad luck to get married on a Tuesday or a Friday since these are the days of Mars and Venus respectively. Engaged couples try to avoid parting from each other or getting married on these days.

Item:

“Di Venere e di Marte né si sposa né si parte.” – “Do not get married on Mars’s or Venus’s day.”

Associated file (video):

Transcript of Associated File:

“‘Di Venere e di Marte né si sposa né si parte’ – um one should neither get married nor leave on a trip on Venus’s day – meaning Friday – or on Mars’s day – meaning Tuesday. Uh Mars, for which ‘Martedì’ – ‘Tuesday’ – is named in Italy, is the God of War of course, so it’s not a good idea to get married on that day. And um Friday – ‘Venerdì’ – the day of Venus is… – it might seem that you should get married on the day of Venus, but um Friday, according to some religious traditions uh and readings of sacred texts, like the Kabbalah, for example, Friday is the day in which evil spirits were created, so for that reason it’s not a good idea to get married on Friday.”

Informant’s Comments:

Professor Canepa said she has read that, according to the Jewish Kabbalah, Friday is the day that evil spirits were created. According to Professor Canepa, “Friday is a day to avoid [getting married] so as not to intermingle with evil spirits.” Tuesday is also a bad day to get married, and Professor Canepa said this is just because it is the day of Mars.

Collector’s Comments:

Professor Canepa did not say exactly why people avoid getting married on Tuesday, the day of Mars. One possibility is that getting married on the day of the Mars, the God of War, could foreshadow conflict in the couple’s relationship; society associates the conflict of a war with conflict in a marriage. The custom of avoiding getting married on a Friday is due to Frazer’s Law of Contagion since the people who have this superstition believe that coming into contact with evil spirits on a Friday will bring bad luck to their marriage. The proverb that Professor Canepa mentioned reinforces belief in this superstition.

Collector’s Name: Peter Loomis

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive