Yesterday I received the following email concerning the Marriages for Monterrey Mexico. It is very interesting and in my opinion very informative. Let me know in the comments what you think about it.
It has been alleged that Monterrey, Nuevo Leon was founded partly by a population of conversos and crypto-Jews. Many believe that descendants of this group have continued maintaining a population there. I wonder if a vestige of Jewish cultural tradition can be seen in a mundane marriage decision; the day of the week to be married.
The marriage information I use comes from two sources: “Martrimorios en la Catedral de Monterrey Libros 1 y 2 1667-1781″ by Jose Francisco Garza Carrillo, Monterrey, N.L. Mex. 2004. & “Marriages of Sagrario Metropolitano: Nuestra Senora de Monterrey 3 February 1781- 4 May 1791″ by Aida Martinez, Los Bexarenos Genealogical Society 2006.
I entered those records into my PAF genealogy software. I then exported the dates to a format that allowed me to determine and count weekday and month. The marriage records of another Nuevo Leon city, General Teran are presented for comparison.
I know next to nothing about Jewish culture so I GOOGLED the following two sites and learned that Tuesdays are good days for marriage and Saturdays are not.
http://www.jewishweddingtraditions.org/
“Weddings may not be conducted on the Sabbath (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), other holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover Shavuot, and Sukkoth); the three weeks between the seventeenth of Tamuz and the ninth of Av, which generally fall in July and/or August and commemorate the destruction of the Temple; the Omer period (between Passover and Shavuot), seven weeks that usually fall in April and May.”
“For much of Jewish history, the third day of the week (Tuesday) was considered an especially auspicious day for a wedding. This was so because, concerning the account of the third day of creation, the phrase “… and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10,12) appears twice. Therefore, Tuesday is a doubly good day for a wedding.”
I know enough about Catholicism to know that Friday is a day of abstinence. The celebration of marriage while observing abstinence would appeal to few.
My friend Viola Rodriguez Sadler and others wrote to tell me of an old dicho: “En martes no te cases ni te embarques.”
On Tuesday don’t marry nor start your trip (or start a project). I understand this admonishment is still given.
This is neither Jewish nor Christian but superstition. I will call it a European belief. Tuesday (Martes) takes it name from Mars the Greek and Roman god of war.
Below find a weekday accounting of all 2,926 Catholic Church marriages that occurred in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico during the 125-year period from 1667 to 1791. Does this marriage distribution, in some way, have anything to do with Crypto-Judaism? You be the judge.
Monterrey marriage totals
1. Sunday: 639
2. Monday: 729
3. Tuesday: 415
4. Wednesday: 405
5. Thursday: 308
6. Friday: 185
7. Saturday: 245
Total weddings: 2,926
General Teran, N.L., Mexico Marriages (1809-1911)
Number of Marriages
1. Sunday: 680
2. Monday: 582
3. Tuesday: 316
4: Wednesday: 740
5. Thursday: 542
6. Friday: 517
7. Saturday: 1,280
Total weddings: 4,657
Monterrey Monthly Marriage totals
1. January: 357
2. February: 471
3. March: 84
4. April: 208
5. May: 284
6. June: 195
7. July: 216
8. August: 318
9. September: 231
10. October: 187
11. November: 295
12. December: 80
Total: 2,926.
Best Regards,
Crispin Rendon
