List of contents Italy.csV: monthly number of marriages celebrated in Italy in the period 1862-2012. The dataset is in wide format (each row represents a year i and each column the associated number of marriages in month j= jen, feb,...,dec) Italyrel.csv: monthly number of marriages celebrated with the religious rite in Italy, 1973-2012. The dataset is in wide format (each row represents a year i and each column the associated number of marriages in month j= jen, feb,...,dec) Italyciv.csv: monthly number of marriages celebrated with the civil rite in Italy, 1973-2012. The dataset is in wide format (each row represents a year i and each column the associated number of marriages in month j= jen, feb,...,dec) Lent.csv: easter dates and dates of the beginning of Lent for each year for the period 1862-2012. This dataset includes also our variable inc_sat_sun (see Table 3 of the paper) In particular, the variable contained in Lent.csv are: year easter_date: self-expicative date format DD/MM/YYYY beginning_lent: date of Ashes Wesneday (easter date= beginning of lent + 46 days) lent_free_apr: number of days of APril out of the Lenten period lent_free_feb: number of days of February out of the Lenten period lent_free_mar: number of days of March out of the Lenten period sat_sun_free: numer of sundays and saturdays out of the lenten period (the code 999 is used when April is totally free from Lent) sat_sun_lent: sat_sun_free/lent_free_apr code.do : Stata code to replicate our analysis *** The same code can be used for regional analysis, however these data are available upon request to Gabriele Ruiu, e mail: gruiu@uniss.it