Differences between rural and urban marriage seasonality from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries in Northern Belgium

Hideko Matsuo,Koen Matthijs

doi:10.14428/rqj2021.09.01.01

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of secularization on marriage seasonality in two Flemish provinces and Brussels, using place of marriage to distinguish between rural and urban areas. The evolution of the level of church control and secularization between the early 19th and the early 20th centuries is measured through a daily Lent and Advent (DLA) marriage index. A low index value points to a higher level of church control and a lower level of secularization, while a high index value points to a lower level of church control and a higher level of secularization. Sub-samples of civil marriage registers are analysed. DLA-index values are low in the early 19th century but increase slowly throughout the rest of the 19th century albeit with geographical variations. Spatial differences can be explained through different socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the population. Still, similar underlying factors across locations are identified: changes are consistently affected in cities, and driven by non-native brides, skilled and unskilled, but only partially observing for elites. Religious rule of Advent is more moderate than the one for Lent, where less Lent effects are observed.

Highlights

This paper examines the impact of secularization on the timing of first marriages in two provinces (West-Flanders and Flemish-Brabant) of the region of Flanders and Brussels-capital, from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries
The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to describe the evolution of secularization through the daily Lent and Advent (DLA)-indexes, and to gain insight into the explanatory power of this index as a proxy for secularization by calculating the proportion of marriages occurring during the periods of Advent and Lent from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries in three locations in western and central Belgium: the province of West Flanders, the province of Flemish Brabant, and Brussels-capital; and (2) to examine if and how preferences concerning the timing of marriage are influenced by individual socio-economic, cultural and geographical characteristics
In Flemish Brabant, as was the case for other locations, self-employed farmers and fisher grooms and brides have low likelihoods (OR= 0.965, p

Summary

Introduction

This paper examines the impact of secularization (as measured by following the marriage ban during Lent and Advent) on the timing of first marriages in two provinces (West-Flanders and Flemish-Brabant) of the region of Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) and Brussels-capital, from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries. Marriage behaviour in Flanders followed the western European marriage pattern (EMP, Hajnal 1965). In the middle of the 19th century, a number of typical marital behaviour characteristics associated with the EMP (i.e. relatively high age at marriage, a high proportion never married, and relatively small spousal age differences) started to erode. The timing of marriages, in particular its interrelation with religiously restricted periods changed (Matsuo & Matthijs 2018a/b)

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