Note 829 — Chapter VIII · THE HEBREW SABBATH

M. Jastrow, in American Journal of Theology, 1898, ii, 324 n.⁴⁷ idem, Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, p. 162. The Old Testament contains at least one reference to a lucky day (1 Samuel, xxv, 8). Among modern Jews no marriages are celebrated during the period between Passover and Pentecost. The origin of the superstition is unknown, but its antiquity may be judged from the fact that in the 8th century A.D. the rabbis themselves were unable to account for it (Abrahams, op. cit., p. 184). By the Romans May was considered an unlucky month for marriage, a belief which Ovid (Fasti, v, 489-490) connects with the celebration of the Lemuria in May. Compare Plutarch, Quæstiones Romanæ, 86. The superstition, as is well known, has descended to our own time.