Live, Monday, 5 October 2026
Today around the world
The wedding world right now: the wedding days and seasons under way, the holidays on this date, the usual hour for the ceremony, the feast and the reception around the world, and one wedding tradition to get to know.
On the wedding calendar today
Around the world right now
- The usual hour for the ceremony in 🇲🇽 Mexico City, 🇬🇹 Guatemala City, 🇳🇮 Managua: Cueca
- The usual hour for the wedding feast in 🇦🇬 Q36262, 🇲🇽 Mexico City, 🇩🇲 Roseau: Tamborito
- The usual hour for procession and arrival in 🇬🇱 Nuuk, 🇬🇲 Banjul, 🇬🇳 Conakry: Gele
- The usual hour for the eve in 🇦🇩 Andorra la Vella, 🇲🇹 Valletta, 🇩🇯 Djibouti: Iranian wedding
- The usual hour for reception, dance and gifts in 🇦🇩 Andorra la Vella, 🇲🇹 Valletta, 🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi: Viennese waltz
On the calendar today
Ghana, from Easter to December
In Ghana a marriage begins with the knocking, or kookoo ko, the formal visit of the groom's family to the bride's, followed by the engagement and the church or civil wedding. Many events are held at weekends from Easter, and December is the busiest month, as it is for Nigeria. The rains in May and June move some events to halls. Families wear kente or other cloth, and the Muslim communities of the north follow the Islamic calendar.
Israel, the summer wedding season
In Israel the wedding season runs from the end of the Omer mourning to the days before Rosh Hashanah. Halls hold two or more weddings a night, often outdoors, and Thursday and Tuesday are as busy as Saturday night, since Saturday is the Sabbath. Between the Three Weeks and Tisha B'Av, from about July to August, many religious couples pause for a few weeks, so dates cluster before and after. Some families also marry after Sukkot, in the autumn.
Chaturmas
Chaturmas, the four months of the rains, begins on Devshayani Ekadashi in July and ends on Dev Uthani Ekadashi in November. Hindus believe Vishnu sleeps in the time, and so no weddings, thread ceremonies or house-warmings are fixed. Jain monks and nuns stay in one place through it, and many families fast and read scripture. The wedding calendar is therefore empty from July to November and then filled at once on the day the god wakes. In 2026 the span is longer because of an extra month.
Also part of it, and being written: Chaturmas (The four-month period.), Prabodhini Ekadashi (The day it ends.), Devshayani Ekadashi (The day it begins.).
Vassa, the Buddhist rains retreat
Vassa, or Buddhist Lent, runs from the day after Asalha Puja in July to the full moon of October, when monks keep to one monastery and the laity practise restraint. In Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar weddings are not often held in the period, and couples wait for the cool season after Ok Phansa. In Myanmar and Sri Lanka the same customs are common, and the astrologer is asked before a date is fixed. The dates follow the full moon.
Also part of it, and being written: Vassa (The rains retreat.), Asalha Puja (The festival before it begins.), Culture of Thailand (The country whose weddings wait.).
September and October wedding peak
Surveys by wedding planners in the United States put September and October at the top of the year for weddings, ahead of June. Couples choose the mild weather, the cooler evenings for guests and the colours of fall, and caterers and venues are open after the summer. Saturdays are the most chosen day and sell out first. In Britain the peak runs from May to September, but early autumn dates are gaining on it.
Also part of it, and being written: Wedding (The custom that the season fills.), Wedding reception (The party that most autumn venues are booked for.).
South Africa, the spring and summer season
In South Africa the wedding season is spring and summer, from September to March, with the Cape wine estates and the Highveld gardens booked well ahead. For many families lobola, the bride price, is negotiated months earlier and the white wedding follows. Traditional weddings among the Zulu, Xhosa and Tswana include songs, dances and the gifts of blankets, and they are held in the homestead in the dry season, often at the end of the year.
Also part of it, and being written: Lobola (The bridewealth settled between the families.), Zulu people (The Zulu wedding traditions.), Xhosa people (The Xhosa wedding customs.).
Harvest-time weddings in Central Asia
In Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan the wedding, toi, is held mostly after the harvest of cotton, fruit and grain, between September and November, and in summer in the cities. Hundreds of guests come to a feast of plov, and the neighbourhood, mahalla, takes part in cooking. Families avoid Ramadan, and an imam performs the nikah before the party. Many governments now limit the number of guests and the cost, because the weddings were becoming a heavy burden on families.
Also part of it, and being written: Mahalla (The neighbourhood that takes part in the feast.), Plov (The rice dish cooked for the guests.), Nikah (The Islamic marriage rite.).
The ber months in the Philippines
In the Philippines the ber months, September to December, are the festive season, and a wedding often fits into them, with relatives from abroad home for Christmas. The church wedding includes the entourage of principal sponsors, the veil and cord ceremony and the coins, the arras. Filipinos also avoid weddings in Holy Week and, by old belief, in some other times, so couples plan around Lent. Many prefer the dry season of the first months of the year as well.
Also part of it, and being written: Culture of the Philippines (The sponsors, veil, cord and arras.), Lent (The season in which weddings are avoided.).
Holidays on this date
- World Space Week (October 4–10)
- Armed Forces Day (Indonesia)
- Christian feast day: Anna Schäffer
- Christian feast day: Charitina of Amisus
- Christian feast day: Faustina Kowalska
- Christian feast day: Flora of Beaulieu
- Christian feast day: Bartolo Longo
- Christian feast day: Hor and Susia (Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria)
- Christian feast day: Placid and Maurus
- Christian feast day: Placidus (martyr)
From Wikimedia's list of holidays and observances, which each link opens.
It is Monday
"Monday for wealth" in the old English rhyme, a day of Shiva for Hindu brides, and today the cheapest day to hire a venue.
Wedding tradition of the day
Coming up in the next six weeks
In 2 days, about 7 Oct 2026Butsumetsu, the unlucky dayThe "Buddha's death" day of the rokuyo cycle: the one most couples in Japan avoid for a wedding.
In 3 days, about 8 Oct 2026Taian, the luckiest dayThe "great peace" day of the six-day rokuyo cycle, chosen for weddings and sold out first.
In 4 days, about 9 Oct 2026Son-eomneun-nal, days without evil spiritsThe days when mischievous spirits are said to be away: lunar days ending in 9 or 0, favoured for weddings and moving house.
In 5 days, 10 Oct 202610/10, the perfect dateOctober 10: in Taiwan, Double Ten Day, a round number meaning "perfect", and a favourite date to marry.
In 5 days, about 10 Oct 2026The Chinese almanac and lucky wedding daysEach lunar month the almanac rates every day, and the family or a fortune teller checks it before fixing the wedding.
In 5 days, about 10 Oct 2026Ngày tốt, a good day in VietnamVietnamese families pick a ngay hoang dao, a lucky day, by the lunar calendar and the ages of the couple.
In 9 days, 14 Oct 2026Pokrov, the autumn wedding seasonThe feast of the Protecting Veil on 14 October: in Slavic villages the harvest is in, and weddings follow.
In 10 days, about 15 Oct to 26 Feb 2027The winter wedding season of South AsiaFrom mid-October to the end of February: the cool months when the many-day Pakistani wedding takes place.
In 22 days, about 27 Oct to 10 Nov 2026The dark half of the monthKrishna Paksha, the waning fortnight: many priests prefer the bright half for a wedding, though not all.
In 27 days, about 1 Nov to 28 Feb 2027The Gulf winter wedding seasonFrom November to March: cool evenings, school holidays and long nights for the women's party and the men's majlis.
In 27 days, about 1 Nov to 28 Feb 2027Thailand and Cambodia, the cool-season weddingsFrom November to the end of February: after the rains and the Buddhist Lent, the months when most couples marry.
In 27 days, about 1 Nov to 31 Mar 2027The dry season wedding months in Latin AmericaNovember to March: after the rains and the harvest, the months when Mexican and Andean villages marry.
In 27 days, about 1 Nov 2026Rahu KalamA daily window of about ninety minutes, different on each weekday, when Hindu priests do not begin a rite.
In 37 days, 11 Nov 2026Singles Day (11/11)The date of four ones, begun by Chinese university students for the unattached, and now a mass day of shopping and matchmaking events.
In 39 days, 13 Nov 2026Friday the 13thA date many couples in the West avoid for a wedding, though some choose it because it is cheap.
In 41 days, about 15 Nov to 24 Dec 2026The Nativity FastForty days from 15 November to Christmas Eve in the Orthodox Church, with no weddings.Wedding news
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- Evolved Catering Baltimore Enters Fall Wedding Season With New Five Star Reviews From CouplesPR Underground, Industry
- Homs Hosts Mass Wedding for Over 100 Children of Martyrs - Syria Focust.co, Mass weddings
- More than 100 sons of martyrs join mass wedding in Homsوكالة الأنباء السورية – سانا, Mass weddings
- OCU holds evening of wedding rituals at seized Cherkasy cathedralСПЖ, Customs
- Andhra Pradesh High Court Quashes Dowry And Cruelty Case Against NRI In-Laws Over Lack Of Sanction And Specific Allegations – The Legal AffairThe Legal Affair, Dowry and gifts
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Kente cloth: ZSM, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Jewish wedding: Jozef Israëls, Public domain, source
- Autumn Wedding Peak: Edmund Blair Leighton, Public domain, source
- Taian Japan: Momotarou2012, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Son Eomneun Nal: halfGoku, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Double Ten Wedding Date: 總統府, CC BY 2.0, source
- Chinese Almanac Wedding Dates: Charles Chan, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Vietnam Ngay Tot: Gabrielle M. Vassal, Public domain, source
- Pakistan India Muslim Winter Season: Rukhsana iqbal, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Thailand Cambodia Cool Season Weddings: Lester Mathias Andersson, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pokrov Wedding Season: Anonymous Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Orthodox Nativity Fast: User:LoKi, Public domain, source
- Singles Day: Chrionexfleckeri1350, CC BY-SA 4.0, source