1930s-1940s: (The Water Ceremony — Comhaire-Sylvain Writing That Everyone Eats Well at Weddings and That Ceremonies Like the Water Ceremony in Which Parents …

1930s-1940s: (The Water Ceremony — Comhaire-Sylvain Writing That Everyone Eats Well at Weddings and That Ceremonies Like the Water Ceremony in Which Parents Asked the Lwas for the Couple’s Protection Revealing Long-Standing Spiritual Practices That Moved Across Beliefs Practiced by Vodouisan and Nonpractitioners and Urban and Rural Space — the Perceived Surge in Marriages at the End of 1943 and Beginning of 1944 Being More Akin to a Seasonal Return, Marriage Rates Increasing During the First Coffee Harvest in November and Continuing Through February and During the Corn Harvest Between August and October): Comhaire-Sylvain wrote that everyone eats well at weddings and that ceremonies like the water ceremony, in which parents asked the lwas for the couple’s protection, revealed long-standing spiritual practices that moved across beliefs — practiced by Vodouisan and nonpractitioners — and urban and rural space. Thus while Jeanne and her friends referenced the perceived surge in marriages at the end of 1943 and beginning of 1944 as a unique contagion, it was more akin to a seasonal return. Throughout the twentieth century, marriage rates increased during the first coffee harvest in November and continued through February, and during the corn harvest between August and October — the marriage calendar was synced to the agricultural one, the vows spoken when the coffee cherries turned red, the ceremonies held when the land was generous enough to share.