To boot and saddle again they sound. Rog. Tara! Taratantara! Taratantara!

So they passed through the Palace Gates and were led into a big room with a green carpet and lovely green furniture set with emeralds. The soldier made them all wipe their feet upon a green mat before entering this room, and when they were seated he said politely[…]

The interesting thing about these ceremonies is that they must have originated in a period when the Romans were using true lunar months based on the observation of the crescent moon. The Kalends then would have been the day after the evening on which the crescent had been first sighted, the Nones would have been the first day when the moon was at the first quarter … In the calendar of the late Republic the lunar months have disappeared and the days have been fixed into a rigid pattern.

At the reception, Uncle Nick got drunk and told dirty jokes to the bridesmaids.