TRADITIONs : Housewarmings Really Raised the Roof

The housewarming was once a deeply rooted tradition in rural areas. The custom dates back to pioneer times, when country folks were dependent on their own energy and ingenuity to grow, make, harvest or hunt virtually all of the essentials of life.

Housewarmings, or “house raisings” as they were sometimes called, frequently involved getting newlyweds off on a solid footing by giving them a home place in which to start their new life.

The new house itself was the product of communal effort. The menfolk took a day or two off and pooled their talents as carpenters and Jacks-of-all-trades. The women outdid themselves by contributing their finest culinary fare, and the occasion took on a festive air despite the labor involved.

James Price of Hayesville, N.C., recalls house raisings he was a part of while growing up.

“The parents of the bride and groom often organized the housewarming event,” Price recalls, “and in many cases, the bride’s father would have made her a new bed, and perhaps other furniture, to go in the home that was being raised by the neighbors.”

Those simple beds are now heirlooms. “In my part of the world,” Price says, “there are beds of this kind that have been passed down through several generations.”

Price says that it was also a common practice for frivolity or shivarees to be associated with housewarmings for the newlyweds.

“Everyone would pretend to go home at day’s end,” he says, “but in reality, they just waited until the couple retired for the evening. Then they would serenade them with love songs, after first ringing cowbells and making lots of noise to get their attention.

“After a few rousing songs, those assembled at the door would demand that the newlyweds come out.”

When the embarrassed couple appeared at the doorway of their new home, he says, “it was customary for the men to put the groom on a rail and ride him around the house, while the womenfolk gave the bride a similar trip in a wheelbarrow.”