Life of women
As in the rest of Sicinian culture, North is sharply divided from South,
Women of nobility have given up most of the old fashions and some have even risen to positions of power, yet the more traditional countryside the patriarchy remains. Women are expected to do the cooking and housework and tend the garden while the men work in the fields. However, for the most part country women look like the picture below right (tenant daughter) With these women, the only time they cover their faces is when they are engaged, so they may not tempt or be tempted by another. However, a decent number (mostly inland from Martinique to Chanaud) still hold to the practice of covering their women all the time in public, ostensibly so that relationships do not spring out of initial attraction. Even in these areas it is only the women who maintain the customs, the men dressing no different than anywhere else.
Marriage
Country weddings are times of great joy, but also traditionally supposed to be a time of sorrow for the bride. Girlhood in Sicinia is very important, and every birthday until the wedding a doll is made in the image of the girl. It is at first made by the mother, but as the girl grows older she in turns sews them on her birthday. The eve of the wedding is a more important ceremony to the bride than the actual marriage ceremony. She is bathed and decorated in inks by the women of both families, then dressed in her weddding gown. A fire is then made, and saying a prayer each time, she casts the dolls of her past birthdays into the flames. On the day of the wedding the decorations on her body are renewed, and the tears added, for the girl is supposed to be saddened by her passage from girlhood to womanhood and her life with a man, although of course most brides are not.
