![]() ![]() One Lincolnshire report from the mid 19th century notes,Īt all weddings and funerals they give a piece of the wedding-cake or funeral biscuit to the bees, informing them at the same time of the name of the party married or dead. The custom is best known in England but has also been recorded in Ireland, Wales, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Bohemia and the United States. Little is known about the origins of this practice, although there is some unfounded speculation that it is loosely derived from or perhaps inspired by ancient Aegean notions about bees' ability to bridge the natural world and the afterlife. ![]() If the custom was omitted or forgotten and the bees were not "put into mourning" then it was believed a penalty would be paid, such as the bees leaving their hive, stopping the production of honey or dying. Telling the bees is a tradition in many European countries in which bees would be told of important events in their keeper's lives such as deaths, births, marriages and departures and returns in the household. Detail of Charles Napier Hemy's painting The Widow (1895) ![]()
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