Banns for Dummies

Banns is an old-fashioned word that was used in the past to describe the public announcement of an upcoming marriage. It's kind of like when you want to let everyone know that you're going to have a big party or when your favorite band announces that they're going on tour – but in this case, it's all about weddings.

So imagine this: you and your best friend Sally have been dating for a long time, and now you're ready to take the next step and get married! Before you can officially tie the knot though, you need to let everyone in your community know about it. Banns would be the way to do that.

Back in the olden days, and even now in some places, it was the responsibility of the church or the local authorities to announce the upcoming marriage to the community. This was done by reading the banns out loud during a church service or posting them in a public place – like the town square or the community notice board.

When Sally and you decide to get married, the church or the local government would make sure that everyone in your community knows about it. They would say something like, "Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that Sally and [Your Name] are planning to get married on [the wedding date]. If anyone knows of a reason why they can't get married, please speak up now or forever hold your peace!"

So, you see, banns were an important way to make sure that weddings were properly announced to the whole community. They gave everyone a heads up about the upcoming celebration and also provided an opportunity for anyone who might have an objection to the marriage to speak up.

But why would anyone object to a wedding, you might wonder? Well, sometimes people would discover that one of the people getting married was already married, or maybe they were too closely related to each other according to the laws of the land. The banns were a way to make sure that everything was in order before the marriage could take place.

So, in a nutshell, banns mean the public announcement of an upcoming marriage. It's like when you tell the whole town, "Hey everyone, we're getting married!" It was an important way of making sure that everyone in the community was aware of the wedding and that there were no legal or moral objections.