Member-only story
Mob of 200 Terrorize Newlywed Couple for 15 Nights Until Sandwiches Convince Them to Leave
A long-standing American wedding tradition went awry when the happy couple wouldn’t go along with it
An American “shivaree” or “chivaree” was a once popular community celebration traditionally held to honor newlyweds. Typically, friends and neighbors gathered outside a newly married couple’s home, making loud noises and doing other obnoxious things to annoy them. The crowd usually demanded that the couple come outside to address them or offer some other form of perfunctory hospitality to get them to stop. However, things went quite a bit further in the 1930s instance when a mob of 200 harassed newlyweds for 15 straight nights, and were finally only convinced to go away after being plied with sandwiches and coffee.
Pranks are common during shivarees, including things like tying bells to bedsprings, removing can labels from food in the pantry, or even leading livestock into the house and leaving them as a surprise. In other cases, recently married couples were “kidnapped” or made to perform sophomoric tasks like being wheeled through town in a wheelbarrow. At one time, shivarees were especially widespread in rural America, but have obviously all but disappeared in modern culture.
