Fragile marital bliss

You are in the hold of a ship. It is dark and the room is decorated with pine green. Outside it is damp and cold. Fortunately, two potbelly stoves keep it comfortably warm down here. It is December 29, 1888. You are in Hoogeveen, at the wedding of Stoffer Oelen, a barge-hand, and Klaasje Wolsink, a hat maker. The brandy bowl is passed round merrily. The bridal couple are also enjoying the party tremendously. Suddenly all the voices fall silent. Everyone looks at the groom, who is presented with the traditional groom's pipe (25): a long, white clay pipe, decorated with flowers and leaves. And very fragile too. Stoffer and Klaasje have to be very careful with it: if the pipe breaks, their marriage will fail – so people say. The flowers and leaves indicate fertility: ‘May you be blessed with children!’ Extra hands in the family are always welcome. The groom is proudly smoking his pipe, while Klaasje's sister Jantine reads the following poetic lines: 

Thus thou tasteth purest pleasure 
Indeed, blessed be thy fate 
May God's goodness spare ye 
Long to last – so be it made 

Every now and then Stoffer looks around sadly. ‘It’s his last day on board,’ the skipper explains: ‘he promised his young wife to give up his life as a barge-hand.’ 
Stoffer and Klaasje would stay together until Klaasje’s death in 1945.