Note 24 — II.—BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.
Reading edition
The Jews also used lamps and torches in their marriage ceremonies or rather when the bridegroom came to conduct home the bride by night. See Kitto’s Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, Art. “Lamp.”—Hymen, the god of marriage, was always figured as bearing a torch, and there are numerous references to the use of torches at marriages in the classical poets. Homer, Euripides and Virgil refer to it, and Lane in his Modern Egypt, I. 201, notices a similar custom in vogue amongst the Egyptians.
Apropos of lamps and lanterns, it is interesting to note that the “Feast of lanterns” is not peculiar to China. The Egyptians had a “Feast of Lamps,” as had also the Jews. Josephus states that the latter was founded by Judas Maccabæus in celebration of the restoration of the Temple worship. Other Oriental nations also observe a similar festival. ↑