Looking for Love Through Traditional Lore

Feb. 14, 2005 — -- In days of yore, before singles bars and online dating, women anxious to meet a husband didn't have a lot of options. If things didn't work out with the shepherd next door, you could turn to traditional folklore in hopes of finding a man. And pray.

Becoming a permanent "spinster of this parish" was almost a fate worse than death, because marriage was really the only career available to most women. Widows had a few options, but an unmarried woman had no way of supporting herself and no social standing.

When photojournalist Paola Gianturco set out to document festivals around the globe that celebrate women, she found a number were focused on love or marriage.

In many indigenous cultures, "heterosexual marriage is the only acceptable life for a woman," she said. "So there are many sorts of traditions that had to do with looking for love."

The local festival was usually a good place to find out if fate had a mate in store for you.

"The summer solstice is a time when magic and love are celebrated in Western Europe," said Gianturco, whose book "Celebrating Women" (powerHouse Books) documents festivals in 15 countries.

In a small village in Poland, she found that young girls still take part in a festival called "Wianki," or "Flower Garlands." What's practiced now is a much tamer version of the original celebration, which began in the ninth century, said Gianturco.

"During pagan times, virgins went naked into the forest at midnight to pick up a powerful herb that only bloomed the first Thursday after the new moon," she said. "They backed up to the plant so that the devil who protected it wouldn't suspect that she was about to steal his precious herb."

Once she had the plant, the maiden would boil it in water and drink the brew. The next man she met would fall madly in love with her.

In today's Wianki, girls around 10 or 11 adorn their hair with flower garlands, which they later float on the lake. Traditionally, what happened to that garland could predict future romance. For instance, if a man picked up a certain garland, he was destined for the young woman who had made it.