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From:
Subject: RE: Bundling
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 11:59:31 EDT

To add to Phil's comments about Bundling, the information I have compiled is
about 4 pages long. I will submit a portion of the material.
Excerpts were taken from a publication entitled "BUNDLING, A Curious
Courtship Custom," by Elmer L. Smith, copyright 1961.
"BUNDLING"
A Curious Courtship Custom
Whether or not stories of the practice of Bundling are myth or truth, the
courtship practice has been reported in various methods. Bundling was
practiced
among the Amish. Most Americans connect the word ‘bundling’ with the curious
courtship custom which flourished in Colonial New England, but few people
realize
the practice extended through other geographical areas. The dictionary
defined the
word bundle “to go to bed with one of the opposite sex, especially a
sweetheart, but
without undressing; formerly a practice in New England and New York.”
Bundling has been referred to as tarrying, night-visiting and
bed-courting. It
was practiced in Pennsylvania among the German and Dutch settlers. People in
the
Netherlands, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Holland were
familiar with bundling long before settlers arrived in America.
The following is part of a long poem reprinted in a Pennsylvania Dutch
tourist guide:
“The Amish are staid and fanatical folks
Who frown upon gaiety, laughter, and jokes.
Their young folks they watch with a discipline stern.
No dances or shows, lest in hell they should burn,
No parties or rides, and no liquor or song.
But one pleasant custom they leave them instead:
The Amisher young do their courting in bed.”
* * * * * * * * * *
THE BOOK OF RUTH
Ruth and Boaz have been referred to as “the original bundlers.” In this
Biblical account we are told of the faithfulness of Ruth to her widowed
mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi had lost not only her husband but two sons as
well,
one son was the spouse of Ruth. In spite of her protests, Ruth stayed with
her
mother-in-law and together they returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the
barley harvest. Naomi’s husband was a kinsman of Boaz and Ruth was advised by
her mother-in-law.
“. . . Behold, he winnoweth barley tonight in the threshingfloor. Wash
thyself
therefore, and anoint thee, and put they raiment upon thee, and get thee down
to the
floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done
eating and
drinking. And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the
place where
shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and
he will
tell thee what thou shalt do.” (Ruth 3:2-14).
Although it was a common custom in the early history of Christianity for
virgins to dwell in the same house with men, according to A.M. Aurand, “Ruth
was
probably a virgin, and to be alone with him, having come there through
stealth at
midnight, surely puts a stamp of ‘bundling’ at least, on our favored lovers.
His
conclusion is drawn from the Biblical description in which Ruth followed her
mother-in-law’s advice and went to the barn and placed herself down near the
sleeping Boaz, who woke up at midnight and noticed a woman at his feet.
“And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid:
spread
therefore they skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.”
And Boaz asked Ruth if she would
“Tarry this night . . . lie down until morning. And she lay at his feet
until the
morning; and she rose up before one could know another. And he said, ‘Let it
not
be known that a woman came into the floor’.”
Soon after they were married.

* * * * * * * * * *

BUNDLING IN THE OLD WORLD
Although the account of “tarrying” between Ruth and Boaz may or may not
actually represent the origin of bundling, according to Achelis, bundling was
practiced by Christians in the Third and Fourth Centuries.
William Graham Sumner, the famous Yale social scientist, distinguished two
forms of bundling; one involving visits in the night as a form of courtship,
and the
other “extreme intimacy between two persons who are under the sex taboo”
because
of marriage or other reasons. He considered the second form of bundling to
have
been common all over Europe during the Twelfth Century. The first form, which
appars more acceptable in that it involved single people seeking mates,
resulted
from the spread of the upper class practices to the peasant class. According
to
Sumner, “it extended to the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, England,
Scotland, and Wales, but it took rather the first form in the lower classes
and in the
process of time.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *
There's More....................
BUNDLING IN WALES
HAND-FASTING IN SCOTLAND********
Bundling has been called by many other names in various countries and
townships. Interesting stories have been told about bundling . Although
bundling
was never socially accepted by some people, it prevailed in spite of them,
and is
claimed to have become customary around 1750. At this time authorities
assure us
that the practice brought with it very few unfortuante results. Those who
advocated
bundling maintained that the evils involved were less than those found among
people in the upper social classes who courted sitting up.
*****************
Hope you enjoy! Pat

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