Customs varied from region to region and from generation to generation. Some marriage customs were recorded in song and story and others reflected in the objects which remain. A maple sugar mould in the shape of a heart was perhaps once used by a young woman to form the sugar heart she would give to her fiance as a sign of their engagement. In some parts of Quebec he might have given her a piece of Indian corn. It was sometimes the custom for her father to ask the young man to fashion a cradle to prove his capability as a woodworker and provider. As a sign of love he might have decorated the cradle with a heart. The young girl would show her talent on the loom by weaving a catalogne. At the time of their marriage the couple might plant a young maple near their home as a sign of long life and fertility and the young bride would embroider her linens and lingerie with flowers. All of the activities surrounding marriage pointed to a long, happy, fruitful life and many of the objects which bear witness to these customs were decorated with symbols which reflect these wishes.
