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Visit gcu.edu. People

1:09

often claim that their love could move mountains.

1:12

But for one Indian man in the

1:15

late 1950s, he meant that literally. In

1:18

1959, Dashrath Manji's beloved wife Falguni Devi

1:21

suffered a fall. She'd

1:23

been attempting to cross a dangerous cliffside

1:25

when she slipped, leaving her grievously injured.

1:29

And she might have survived if that same

1:31

mountain weren't blocking the only route to the

1:33

nearest hospital. Tragically, she

1:35

passed away, leaving Dashrath Manji

1:37

alone. Now, it's

1:39

safe to say that some people might have

1:41

given in to sorrow after that. But not

1:43

Manji. No, he refused to let what happened

1:45

to his wife happen to anyone else ever

1:47

again. And so, armed with only

1:49

a hammer and a chisel, he began to dig.

1:53

Over the next 22 years, Manji

1:55

single-handedly carved a 360-foot-long, 30-foot-wide, Twenty

2:00

five foot deep pass right through

2:02

the mountain. By. The time he

2:04

was done, he had shortened what had once been

2:06

a thirty five mile journey between his town and

2:08

that of the hospital. To. Less than ten.

2:11

For his service, he was given the

2:13

affectionate moniker the Mountain Men and in

2:16

two thousand and sixteen, India's Postal Service

2:18

even put his face on a stamp.

2:21

If anything, Muncie is proof that

2:23

love defined boundaries can transcend borders

2:25

and backgrounds, class and face. and

2:28

yes, even cuts through solid stone.

2:30

There are countless stories of people

2:32

loving each other from opposite sides

2:35

of a war or across wide,

2:37

hungry oceans. And sometimes

2:39

love can even cracks through the

2:41

greatest boundary of all the one

2:44

between life. And test. Time

2:47

Air and Maggie. And this.

2:50

Is Lore. Until

3:07

Death do us part. It's a well

3:09

worn, same evoking i'll strewn with rose

3:12

petals in brides and long white veils.

3:14

The phrase has sort of been the

3:16

wedding vow ever since the Book of

3:19

Common Prayer was printed and Fifteen forty

3:21

nine. And it's a powerful sentiment to

3:23

dedicate your life to another person so

3:25

fully that only death itself could separate

3:28

you. But. The thing is, marriage

3:30

isn't always stuff to my desk. In

3:32

fact, sometimes being dead is an essential

3:34

part of the deal. To

3:36

take for example, the Chinese Ghost Marriage

3:38

also known as Spirit Marriage or Ming

3:40

Hung. The practice is a good three

3:42

or four thousand years old, and honestly,

3:45

it looks a lot like a regular

3:47

marriage, except for a small difference. One

3:49

or more of the wedded parties is

3:51

the well deceased. Now why

3:53

exactly with someone? Marry a corpse.

3:55

or as it sometimes goes, married two

3:58

corpses to each other? Well, it. depends

4:00

on the religion and the situation. For

4:03

one, there's a stigma around having an

4:05

unwed daughter. So if your daughter dies

4:07

before being married, you can set her

4:09

up with a nice dead boy and

4:11

avoid embarrassment. In mainland China, this is

4:14

the most common form of a ghost

4:16

marriage and essentially just involves burying the

4:18

bodies of two unmarried people together. In

4:21

other locations though, things get a little

4:23

more haunted. In Taiwan, it's

4:25

not uncommon for a dead woman to show

4:28

up in her mother's dreams and

4:30

demand a husband. A still living

4:32

husband, mind you, which the parents must

4:34

provide. In Singapore and Hong

4:36

Kong, for example, a ghost marriage can

4:38

prevent a deceased son or daughter from

4:41

growing angry about their perpetual singledom and

4:43

then taking revenge from beyond the grave.

4:46

It's practical too. Ghost marriages

4:48

allow families to acquire a daughter-in-law or

4:50

a son-in-law, even though their own child

4:53

has passed on. And it

4:55

also, like any regular marriage, cements bonds

4:57

between two families and allows a younger

4:59

brother required to wait until the eldest

5:01

has married to then go on and

5:03

take a wife if the eldest dies

5:05

on bed. And then there's

5:07

the tradition of Japanese doll marriages. This

5:10

actually rose to popularity pretty recently in the

5:12

1930s during the 15 years war. More

5:16

and more Japanese men were dying on the

5:18

battlefield, often before having the chance to marry.

5:21

And so their families, particularly around

5:23

the Tsugaru Peninsula, came up with

5:25

a solution to try and give

5:27

their sons peace in the afterlife

5:29

and placate any pesky ghosts. Instead

5:32

of marrying a dead relative off to a

5:34

living person or another corpse, they would be

5:36

married to a doll. But

5:38

not just any doll. This would

5:40

be a figurine believed to hold

5:42

the spirit of the bodhisattva named

5:44

Jizo, who would provide compassionate partnership

5:46

to the deceased. Oh, and

5:49

after the wedding, something strange is

5:51

said to happen to this doll. As

5:53

time passes, its face will slowly morph

5:55

to look exactly like the dead spouse.

5:58

It's tempting to feel in need your own.

6:00

shiver down the spine at the thought of

6:03

holding a wedding ceremony over a course. But

6:05

given their cultural and legal context, these rituals

6:07

honestly made a lot of sense. and it

6:09

makes sense to that. When there's a demand

6:12

for something, hustlers will find a way to

6:14

come on a fight. You. See

6:16

those Japanese dolls? Well they become

6:18

a booming. Industry, The figurines or

6:20

mass produced in factories and can go

6:22

for as high as forty thousand yen

6:25

apiece, or roughly two thousand and six

6:27

hundred dollars in American currency. And

6:29

that's the least of it's Chinese ghost

6:31

marriages ended up leading to a bit

6:34

of a body snatching problem. In fact,

6:36

legislation had to be put in place

6:38

to keep people from stealing girls out

6:40

of their graves to sell off as

6:42

ghost brides, which unfortunately, Is still

6:45

an issue today. Between. Two thousand

6:47

and thirteen and two thousand and sixteen

6:49

twenty seven girls' bodies were reportedly stolen

6:51

from their graves in just one small

6:54

town and saucy province, with many more

6:56

vanish seen across the country. And

6:58

disturbingly enough, if you peek at the

7:00

news from as recently as two thousand

7:02

and seventeen, you'll find murder cases in

7:04

which women were killed so that their

7:06

corpses can be sold, as do. Now

7:09

before you go with think that we

7:11

here in America are exempt from this

7:14

unsettling rackets. Well. Let. Me tell you how

7:16

wrong you might be. Take. The Story

7:18

of Lizzie and Mary Bangs to Victorian

7:20

era spiritualists from Chicago. As a publicity

7:22

stunt, they hosted a wedding between a

7:24

wealthy widow and her liver a captain

7:27

in the army. And it's also worth

7:29

mentioning that this handsome captain was, you

7:31

guessed it, dead. Now. When

7:34

I say hosted a wedding I mean

7:36

all the bells and whistles, white down

7:38

flowers and ordain minister you know the

7:40

the works at of course it wouldn't

7:42

be complete without a ring. When.

7:44

the time came for the gold band

7:47

to be placed on the bride's finger

7:49

the banks sisters manifested the dead captain

7:51

who conveniently stepped out of a cupboard

7:53

in full uniform he placed the ring

7:55

on his beloved finger and the two

7:58

were wed sealed with a kiss How

8:01

the Bang Sisters managed to give a ghost

8:03

a solid form that could both kiss and

8:05

pick up wedding bands is anyone's guess. Let's

8:08

pray that a miracle took place. If

8:10

not, the minister may have said it best. She

8:12

wrote, I hope it was really a

8:15

materialized spirit that was married, for if it

8:17

was a man in Earth life, he

8:19

is married. Sure enough. Weddings

8:34

are supposed to be days of joy. They're

8:37

all about celebrating love after all, and what

8:39

could be more joyful than that. So

8:42

when things go wrong and tragedy

8:44

strikes, well, that contrast makes the

8:46

sting all the more painful. I'm

8:49

sure you've heard variations of this story. A

8:51

bride who on what should be the happiest

8:53

day of her life meets an untimely death.

8:56

Sometimes she dies right before her wedding,

8:58

sometimes soon after, but it always ends

9:00

the same with a forlorn woman haunting

9:03

the daylights out of the living, still

9:05

wearing her wedding dress, of course, a

9:07

very literal finning of the veil, so

9:09

to speak. There's a

9:11

churchyard bride of Ireland, for example, who

9:13

leads all who see her to their

9:15

death and the ghost bride of Vaiasito,

9:18

who died while traveling to meet her

9:20

lover during the gold rush and now

9:22

rides through the nights on a headless

9:24

horse. And let's not forget

9:26

about the ghost bride at the Chute de

9:28

la Domblanche in Quebec, who, after

9:30

her fiancee died in the Battle of

9:32

Bauport, flung herself off a waterfall. Hey,

9:35

what can I say? You really can't keep a

9:37

good ghost bride on. There might

9:39

be no better example of this trope,

9:41

however, than the White Lady of Kinsale,

9:44

also known as the Bride of Charles

9:46

Fort. Charles Fort is about

9:48

a mile and a half from the town

9:50

of Kinsale, Ireland, and it's a huge star-shaped

9:52

military stronghold built way back in 1682. According

9:56

to the legends, one of the Fort's early

9:58

commanders had a daughter. and this daughter

10:00

fell in love with a guy named Sir Trevor.

10:03

On the evening of her wedding, she and

10:05

her young groom walked arm in arm on

10:07

the fort's ramparts enjoying the night air and

10:09

dreaming of the life ahead of them. While

10:11

walking, the bride peered over the walls and

10:13

saw a flash of white on the grounds

10:15

below. Leaning to look closer, she

10:17

realized what it was, a rose.

10:20

A nearby sentry offered to climb down the

10:22

ramparts to fetch the rose for her, so

10:24

long as her new husband agreed to stand

10:27

in his place for a bit, which I

10:29

imagine seemed like a pretty good deal for

10:31

the groom. It was way easier to stand

10:33

around than to scramble down a wall, right?

10:36

And so the groom put on the

10:38

sentry's jacket and took up his post,

10:40

as the sentry himself started the long

10:42

descent to the ground, but the guy

10:44

was taking forever. So the bride went

10:46

back to her chambers while Sir Trevor

10:48

dutifully waited for the sentry to finish

10:50

his job. He waited and

10:52

waited and waited some more until

10:54

eventually Sir Trevor fell asleep, which

10:56

is when the bride's father came

10:58

upon him and mistaking his disguised

11:00

son-in-law for a slacking soldier, shot

11:02

him then and there. Seems

11:04

like a harsh punishment for a little nap,

11:07

but hey, this was a different era. By

11:10

the time the commander realized his mistake though,

11:12

it was too late. The groom was dead.

11:15

Talk about a shotgun wedding, right? Suffice

11:18

to say the bride, well, she didn't take

11:20

it too well. When she heard what had

11:22

befallen her new husband, she threw herself off

11:24

the ramparts. They say that she

11:26

was still wearing her wedding gown when she

11:29

jumped. Her father, overcome by guilt, soon

11:31

followed suit. Now look,

11:33

there are no actual names or dates

11:35

on record to link all of this

11:37

with any actual history, but that hasn't

11:39

kept the ghost stories from spreading. For

11:42

example, one major during the Peninsular War

11:44

reported following a woman in an old

11:46

fashioned white dress up the fort stairs,

11:49

before she vanished, that is. Later,

11:51

a nursemaid watched in terror as a

11:54

lady in white glided to her sleeping

11:56

ward's bed. The spirit stroked the child's

11:58

wrist, who cried out, from the

12:00

cold touch. And then in

12:02

1880 a lieutenant and a captain were

12:05

walking through the fort and both spotted,

12:07

that's right, a woman in white.

12:09

She passed through a closed door right in

12:11

front of their eyes and the

12:13

sightings haven't slowed down yet. A

12:15

recent hotel manager spotted the doomed bride

12:18

out on New Year's Eve. A runner

12:20

stopping to fix his shoe against the

12:22

side of the fort felt something grab

12:25

his hand. Multiple officers have even reported

12:27

an invisible force shoving them down the

12:29

stairs. But don't take

12:31

my word for it, go find out

12:34

for yourself. Charles Fort is still a

12:36

popular tourist destination. There are tea rooms,

12:38

daily tours, and you can even rent

12:40

it out for weddings. It

13:00

must have been a hard place to

13:02

grow up. Nonskothirne is a windswept and

13:04

secluded valley that sits on a peninsula

13:07

in Wales jutting into the

13:09

Irish Channel. Today the nearest bus stop

13:11

is a town away and the closest

13:13

train station even farther. And back in

13:15

the 18th century, well, let's just say

13:17

that there wasn't much of a nightlife.

13:20

In fact, as of around 1770 we know

13:23

that there were only three farms in the

13:25

whole valley and if the stories are to

13:27

be believed, the residents of those farms would

13:29

become the stuff of legend. According

13:31

to a local folktale, two of these

13:34

farms stood on opposite sides of a

13:36

ravine and one lived a young man

13:38

named Rhys and his two sisters and

13:40

the other lived their uncle and his

13:42

daughter, a beautiful young woman named Mayneer.

13:45

Rhys's sisters were sickly and so he and

13:47

Mayneer spent most of their childhoods together, just

13:49

the two of them. They must have been

13:51

hard to get away and feel independent at

13:54

a place so small. But Rhys and Mayneer

13:56

found a spot that could be theirs and

13:58

theirs alone. It was a huge old

14:00

oak tree, growing at the foot of a

14:02

nearby mountain. There they could

14:04

watch the sheep graze, listen to the wind

14:07

howl, and just be together. The

14:09

years went on, and slowly that friendship

14:11

turned to love, and luckily too, because

14:14

the dating pool hadn't left them with

14:16

many options. They decided to

14:18

marry and set a wedding date for a

14:20

warm weekend in June. When the

14:22

day came, friends and family from far away

14:24

were glad to make the trip to Little

14:26

Notcotherne, with plenty of food and gifts in

14:28

tow. And when they arrived, it

14:30

was time for the traditional Welsh wedding

14:33

quest. Here's how it works.

14:35

The groom and his friends would come to the

14:37

bride's family home the morning of the wedding, and

14:39

the bride would make a break for it. Then

14:42

the groom's male friends would try to chase her

14:44

down, pursue her into the hills, until

14:46

they captured her and carried her to the chapel.

14:49

It was meant to be a light-hearted way to

14:51

get everyone laughing. And if we

14:53

ignore the metaphorical implications of forcibly abducting

14:56

a woman to become a bride, I'm

14:59

sure it was a fun time, leaving

15:01

everyone in high spirits. The couple included.

15:04

At least, that is how it's supposed to go. On

15:06

the morning of Maynir's wedding, the men from the

15:08

village came for her. Playing along

15:10

with the festivities, she ran and they let

15:12

her escape. First, she hid in the hay

15:15

bales, but they found her pretty quickly. Being

15:17

good sports, they gave her a second chance. So

15:20

with a bright smile, she darted off once

15:22

again, this time vanishing into the wilds of

15:25

the valley. Meanwhile, back at

15:27

the church, the wedding festivities were in

15:29

full swing. The Welsh loved a wedding,

15:31

even if it was for the weird

15:34

hermit couple who lived at the edge

15:36

of the island. The groom and his

15:38

guests played music, joked, danced, and adorned

15:41

themselves with wildflowers as they waited for

15:43

the groomsmen and Maynir to arrive. But

15:46

hours went by and still no bride.

15:49

People were starting to get antsy, and

15:51

what had been a lively afternoon soured

15:54

into an anxious evening. Soon, the same

15:56

question was on everyone's lips. Where

15:59

on earth was the question? bride. A

16:01

poor groom hadn't stopped watching the path

16:03

expecting his love to appear at any

16:05

moment, but as the day wore on,

16:07

Rhys grew more and more worried. So

16:10

when at last his friends returned

16:12

empty-handed, his worst fear was confirmed.

16:15

Maynir was officially missing. What

16:18

had started as a wedding party became

16:20

a search party, continuing all through the

16:22

night, but the bride was never

16:24

found. According to the

16:26

legend, Rhys went mad with grief. He

16:29

wandered the hills like a wild man,

16:31

not caring if he slept or bathed,

16:33

just endlessly searching for his lost bride.

16:36

Years passed, and all the while he

16:38

never stopped looking. And every so

16:40

often he would visit their oak tree, the

16:42

one where he and Maynir had first fallen

16:44

in love. Well, one day

16:46

a storm rose up and Rhys took

16:49

shelter under that tree. And sure enough,

16:51

as the grieving man huddled below its

16:53

branches, a bolt of lightning struck, splitting

16:55

the oak right in the center. And

16:58

when it did, something fell out of

17:00

the hollow trunk, a skeleton,

17:03

wearing a bridal gown. With

17:05

horror, Rhys realized what had happened. His

17:07

bride-to-be must have climbed into an opening

17:09

in the trunk to hide from the

17:12

wedding party and then became stuck. Trapped,

17:15

hungry, and terrified, she had died

17:17

there. The very place where their

17:19

love was born had also become her

17:21

tomb. Some versions of

17:23

the story say that Rhys, overcome with

17:26

grief, died right there in the rain.

17:28

His sweetheart skeleton cradled in his arms.

17:31

And it's said that to this day, no

17:33

birds will land on that oak tree's branches.

17:36

Now, if you're like me, you're wondering how

17:38

much of this story is true. Yes,

17:40

it's a fact that there were only three

17:42

families in the area back in the 18th

17:44

century. But what about the couple? And

17:47

more importantly, what about the tree?

17:50

Well, there's no proven tree with

17:52

a skeleton inside, but the town

17:54

has designated a symbolic tree where

17:56

visitors can pay their respects to

17:58

the doomed sweethearts. The

18:00

story is a big deal in that

18:02

town. They even hosted a race named

18:04

after the story called the Reis and

18:06

Mayneer race. Oh, and then there

18:08

are the ghosts as well. Fishermen have

18:11

reported seeing the skeleton bride standing at

18:13

the ocean's edge, her arms raised high,

18:15

and her crown of flowers still resting

18:17

atop her pale skull. Others

18:20

have seen a couple walking hand in hand on

18:22

the beach. One figure is said

18:24

to have long hair and a wild

18:26

beard, while the other has empty eye

18:28

circuits in her skeletal face. But

18:31

if those reports are true, it

18:33

also means that this tale actually has

18:36

a happy ending. The couple

18:38

may not have had much time together while they

18:40

were alive, but in death, their

18:43

love is eternal. It's

19:00

simple math. The average human spends about 29,000 days

19:03

on this planet. And

19:05

while most of those days are just spent living,

19:08

there are some that stand out more than others.

19:11

The day you're born, the day you have your

19:13

first kiss or get your first job, or your

19:15

kid is born, the day you get married. We

19:18

remember them because they're days that

19:20

represent beginnings, the start of something

19:22

bigger. At least they should. And

19:25

so if one of those special days

19:27

ends up being your last, it almost

19:29

feels like a betrayal, potential snuffed out

19:31

like a flame. When I

19:34

first heard the Rhys and Maynir story, it

19:36

felt oddly familiar. And sure, I

19:38

could chalk that up to the fact that you

19:40

can't seem to throw a rock without hitting a

19:42

ghost bride, thanks to how common these stories are.

19:45

But this one felt specific, and then

19:47

I realized why. There's an

19:49

urban legend I grew up hearing that has

19:51

almost the exact same plot. It's

19:54

the game of the wedding quest with modern

19:56

hide and seek, and things start to look

19:58

a lot more recognizable. Here, let

20:00

me jog your memory. A wedding party gathers

20:02

in a big house and decides to play

20:05

a game of hide and seek. The

20:07

bride runs off to hide and the

20:09

groom starts to look for her. But

20:11

no matter where he searches, he can't

20:13

find his new wife anywhere, and neither

20:15

can anyone else. If there

20:17

were a hide and seek Olympics, this woman

20:20

would get the gold medal because she was

20:22

never seen again. As the

20:24

legend goes, 50 years pass when

20:26

new residents in that house make a

20:28

morbid discovery. Cracking open an

20:30

old oak chest long forgotten in the

20:33

attic, they find a skeleton

20:35

wearing a wedding dress. That's

20:38

right, the bride, it turns out, had been

20:40

snug in her hiding place all along. She

20:42

had climbed into the trunk only to gasp

20:45

in horror when the lid snapped shut, trapping

20:47

her inside. The first

20:49

written version of this story appeared in

20:52

an 1822 poem called Jenerva, but it

20:54

likely stretches back a lot farther. And

20:57

of course it is hard not to notice

20:59

the similarities between this and the story

21:01

of poor Maynir. The festive hiding

21:03

game on the wedding day, the

21:05

missing bride, the eventual reveal of

21:07

a skeleton still draped in its

21:10

wedding finery. And of

21:12

course, one tiny but essential detail.

21:15

Both brides died inside an

21:17

oak trunk. Wedding

21:33

ceremonies are sweet, but do you know

21:35

what's even sweeter? Wedding cake. But

21:38

it turns out there's more to this frosted confection

21:40

than meets the eye, as one more

21:42

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episode is also sponsored by BetterHelp. A lot

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something beautiful. The

25:48

year was 1863 and the Civil

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War was only halfway over. The

25:53

United States had been reduced to a

25:55

bloody battleground and morale was low. In

25:57

short, the people needed something to cheer

25:59

them them up, and on February

26:01

10th, they received just that, a

26:04

huge wedding. Or rather,

26:06

should I say, a very small wedding.

26:08

You see, this was the day that

26:10

Lavinia Warren married Charles Stratton, or as

26:12

you might know him, General

26:14

Tom Thumb. Standing at

26:16

only 35 inches tall, Stratton was one of

26:18

the most famous stars of the time, performing

26:21

with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. His

26:23

bride, Lavinia, was of similar stature and

26:26

performed as his co-star. Their

26:28

New York wedding was extravagant. In fact, Barnum

26:30

and Bailey sold 5,000 tickets

26:32

to the event. But while that shindig is a

26:34

century and a half in the past now, a

26:37

little something of it remains. That

26:39

is, the cake. Today, both the

26:41

Library of Congress and the Barnum Museum

26:43

have small slices of Charles and Lavinia's

26:45

actual wedding cake, preserved for the past

26:48

150 years. And

26:51

weirdly, this is not the only wedding

26:53

cake squirreled away by the U.S. federal government.

26:55

They also saved a slice from President

26:57

Eisenhower's wedding cake from July of 1916.

27:01

And it doesn't end there. At

27:03

the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Museum in Caldwell, New

27:05

Jersey, you can find a 130-year-old slice

27:08

of President Cleveland's wedding cake, albeit with

27:11

one corner missing. According to the story,

27:13

a visiting cub scout back in the

27:15

1950s let his cravings get the better

27:18

of him, and he snuck a single

27:20

forbidden bite. In 2021, a slice

27:22

of Princess Diana's 1981 wedding cake sold for 1,850 pounds. And

27:30

look, as someone who's always a little tempted

27:32

by ancient wheels of cheese found in tombs

27:34

and butter pulled out of bogs, I

27:37

get it. A preserved cake can keep

27:39

some of the wedding magic alive long

27:41

after the wedding itself is dead and

27:43

gone. The cake is the centerpiece

27:45

of the event, after all. Comparing

27:47

that tall, layered confection has become

27:49

one of the most beloved and

27:51

delicious wedding traditions that we have.

27:54

But most of us are too busy licking the

27:56

plate to stop and wonder where the whole idea

27:59

came from. Well, it turns out

28:01

wedding cakes have been a part of

28:03

Western weddings since antiquity. It probably started

28:05

in ancient Greece moving quickly to Rome.

28:08

Now Roman weddings were closed out by

28:10

breaking a wheat or barley cake over

28:12

the bride's head for good luck and

28:14

fertility. The bride and groom would then

28:16

eat the cake together and the guests

28:18

would gather any leftover crumbs for their

28:20

own good fortune. And before you

28:22

give the whole crumbs in the air thing a

28:25

side eye, it's worth noting that many still practice

28:27

a version of this today. Newlyweds

28:29

smash a fistful of cake into

28:32

each other's faces. Now in

28:34

medieval England they had a slightly different

28:36

ceremonial snack. This one involves stacking spiced

28:38

buns into as high a tower as

28:40

possible. And if the bride and groom

28:42

could kiss over the pile they would

28:44

be blessed with good luck. By

28:47

the 1600s though the buns had been replaced

28:49

with what was called a bride's pie. But

28:51

this wasn't your grandma's apple

28:54

pie. Though the filling included

28:56

things like mutton, oysters, pine

28:58

kernels, and sheep's testicles. Yeah,

29:00

you can take a moment to digest that if

29:02

you need to. The same

29:05

1685 recipe that called for these

29:07

delightful ingredients also included a compartment

29:09

in the pie for live birds

29:11

or even a snake. This

29:13

was naturally to give the guests a fun

29:15

surprise as they sliced the pie open. Girls

29:18

jumping out of cakes? That's boring. Five

29:21

snakes flying out of a pastry crust? That

29:24

is a party. During the

29:26

17th century English brides pies gradually

29:28

turned into cakes. Two cakes to

29:30

be exact. One groom's cake and

29:33

one bride's cake. The groom's

29:35

cake was usually a dark fruit cake that could

29:37

be cut into squares for the wedding guests to

29:39

take home. But not to eat

29:41

mind you. No guests would place the

29:43

cake under their pillows. It was believed

29:45

that if a bridesmaid slept with the

29:48

slice beneath her head she would dream

29:50

that night of her own future husband.

29:52

Luckily for the abused bedsheets of England

29:54

though this eventually fell out of

29:56

fashion. Brides cakes unlike groom's

29:58

cakes were covered in black. covered in icing,

30:01

usually a white icing. But

30:03

the color had nothing to do with purity. In

30:05

fact, the idea of white representing

30:07

purity wasn't really established until

30:09

the Victorian era. No,

30:11

in the 1600s, the white frosting meant one

30:14

thing and one thing only, money.

30:16

To achieve that pearly hue, the icing would

30:18

have to be made from the most expensive

30:21

sugar on the market. So the

30:23

whiter the bridal cake, the more of a

30:25

status symbol that cake became. Oh,

30:27

and that icing? It was rock hard, by

30:29

the way. Brides had to be

30:31

equipped with a special saw just to hawk off

30:33

a piece. Status symbol

30:35

or no, the cakes were pretty simple.

30:38

Up until the 19th century, wedding cakes

30:40

were usually a single layer fruit cake

30:42

covered in almond paste and encrusted in

30:44

that white sugar icing. But

30:46

then came Queen Victoria, and one thing

30:49

she was not was simple. Victoria

30:51

and Prince Albert's ornate 1840 wedding

30:53

cake set the stage for the

30:55

elaborate modern wedding cakes we see

30:57

today. It was still only

31:00

one layer of a plum cake, but

31:02

it was gigantic. I'm talking a circumference

31:04

of 10 feet and weighing 300 pounds.

31:07

The cake was decorated with sculptures

31:09

of the newlyweds dressed in traditional

31:12

Roman garb, plus one of Victoria's

31:14

beloved dogs, turtle doves, cupids, and

31:16

more, all in shimmering white. If

31:19

a baked good could be a celebrity, well

31:21

this one really takes the cake. Over

31:23

a week leading up to the wedding, a

31:25

portrait of the pastry hung in every print

31:27

shop window in London. The

31:29

cake was so famous that the

31:31

middle class started playing royal cake

31:34

copycats, serving their own white icing

31:36

covered, sculpture laden creations. In

31:38

fact, that's where the term royal icing comes

31:40

from. But it was

31:42

42 years later at Prince Leopold's nuptials

31:44

that the last few ingredients were tossed

31:46

into the batter, finalizing the style that

31:48

we know today. This,

31:50

you see, was the first wedding cake

31:52

to fight gravity by having multiple edible

31:55

tears. The classic towering wedding

31:57

cake with all its sugary adornments and

31:59

cake toppers was officially born.

32:02

Hard royal icing was replaced with softer icing

32:04

in the 1980s, but

32:06

other than that, traditional wedding cakes

32:08

have remained largely unchanged since the

32:11

Victorian era. And it all

32:13

harkened back to one simple superstition, a

32:15

broken barley cake for luck thousands of

32:17

years in the past. But

32:19

hey, if you have a wedding coming up and

32:21

you want to do something extra special for your

32:23

guests, nothing says true love

32:26

like a pie crust full of snakes.

32:42

This episode of Lore was produced by

32:45

me, Aaron Mankie, with writing by Jenna

32:47

Rose Nethercott, research by Alex Robinson, and

32:49

music by Chad Lawson. Don't

32:51

like hearing ads? I've got a solution. There's

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a paid version of Lore on Apple

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free. Plus, subscribers get weekly mini episodes

33:00

called Lore Bites. It's a bargain for

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all of that ad free storytelling and

33:05

a great way to support this show

33:07

and the team behind it. Lore

33:09

is much more than just a podcast.

33:11

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and online and two seasons of the

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television show on Amazon Prime Video. Information

33:18

about all of that and more is

33:20

available over at lorapodcast.com. And you can

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