Receptions after a Polish wedding are great celebrations. Lots of food and drink and dancing. As the wedding reception is ending all of the married women gather around the seated bride. They take off her wedding veil and put on her head a babushka to signify her status now as a married woman. Then they sing an incredibly poignant song about how now the bride will be like Mary, a wife and mother. The underlying implication of the song is “be prepared to suffer as Mary did.” When Simeon told Mary that “a sword will pierce” her heart he was reminding her that both the joy at the birth of her child and the grief that comes with loss are part of the divine plan.
