Marriage stone

A few steps behind the church, on the left bank of the Semois, there is a double monolith: a block of schist and a block of quartz, called the "Pierre à Marier" .

This is a pagan survival of the betrothal and marriage , a local custom that has unfortunately disappeared, and which was called "Saudée"; Bohan's youth "saudait" (read) the future couple. When the marriage was solemnized, the two couples were led to the "Pierre à Marier". There they would sit back to back and reenact an argument. They were then tied to a stone or tree stump that they had to drag home , symbolizing the difficulties they would have to overcome in their lives.

This was a fertility rite. The carriage of a stone or a tree stump (depending on the fortune of the groom towards the bride) by the newlyweds on the wedding day was of a satirical nature. If it was a stone , the ancient inhabitants of the villages near Bohan made the groom understand that the woman would be the absolute "head" in the household . If it was a tree stump , the woman was made to understand that she only had to obey her husband.

Willem Vandenameele