Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 20:38:59 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: HONEYMOON: JFK, Jr.'s Marriage and the Lunar Eclipse



"Honeymoon" indeed!

The New York Post calls it "Hunky Moon." As everyone knows by now, JFK,

Jr. got married.

Also, there was a lunar eclipse.

Hm!!

This comes from Potter's American Monthly, October 1879, p. 312, col. 2:



Benedict asks us the origin of the term "honeymoon." It is traceable to

a Teutonic origin. Among the Teutons was a favorite drink called metheglin,

made of the mead of honey, and very similar to the mead of European

countries. This honeyed drink was used more especially at marriage

festivals, which were customarily kept up among the nobility for the period

of one lunar month, the board being well supplied with metheglin. Hence

"Honah moon" signified the moon or month of the marriage festival. Alaric

the Goth, celebrated in Southey's poem, died on his wedding night from a too

free indulgence in the honeyed drink.