thumb|Newlyweds leaving for their honeymoon boarding a [[Trans-Canada Air Lines plane, Montreal, 1946]]A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds after their wedding to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase in a couple's relationship—whether they are in matrimony or not—that exists before getting used to everyday life together.
History
thumb|Bridal Journey in Hardanger by [[Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude, a romanticized view of the customs of 19th-century Norwegian society]]
The custom in Western culture and some westernized countries' cultures of a newlywed couple going on a holiday together originated in early-19th-century Britain. Upper-class couples would take a "bridal tour", sometimes accompanied by friends or family, to visit relatives who had not been able to attend the wedding. The practice soon spread to the European continent and was known in France as a ('English-style voyage'), from the 1820s onwards.
Honeymoons in the modern sense—a pure holiday voyage undertaken by the couple—became widespread during the Belle Époque, in the late 1800s as one of the first instances of modern mass tourism.
According to some sources, the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month.
Etymology
The honeymoon was originally the period following marriage, "characterized by love and happiness," as attested since 1546. The word may allude to "the idea that the first month of marriage is the sweetest".
According to a different version, of the Oxford English Dictionary:
Today, honeymoon has a positive meaning, but originally it may have referred to the inevitable waning of love, like a phase of the moon. In 1552, Richard Huloet wrote: