The Origins of Common Wedding Traditions
In a modern fast moving world, it is comforting to know that people still follow old customs and traditions at important times in their lives. What could be a more important time in anyone’s life than his or her wedding? British white weddings are very traditional and brides and grooms follow incredibly old customs without realizing their origins.
Even the word “wedding” is ancient, it comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “wedd”. Most people today marry for love from choice, “wedd” meant that the groom vowed to marry the bride and he bought her with money or goods from her father. The custom of the prospective groom asking the bride’s father for her hand in marriage comes from this time, when the bride had little, or no, say in her marriage.
Most British couples now marry on a Saturday but an old rhyme advises against a Saturday wedding, counselling that Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are luckier days for a marriage ceremony.
The white wedding gown is usually credited to Queen Victoria, but Anne of Brittany wore a white wedding dress in 1499. Most other women simply wore their best dress whatever colour it was, but all avoided green, which was an emblem of loose morals. When Queen Victoria wore a white wedding gown, instead of the more usual British royal silver gown, white became the bridal colour for richer families. Today, people think that white signifies the bride’s chastity, but it is traditionally symbolic of joy.
The bride’s veil symbolizes modesty and chastity, but originally it was to protect from the evil eye. Some commentators believe that in the days of arranged marriages, the groom could back out of the bargain, if he did not like what he saw, until the ceremony was safely over.
Bridesmaids in Roman times were dressed identically to the bride to confuse the evil spirits. In the days, when men stole their brides from their families, the Best Man protected the groom from the bride’s family or love rivals.
A wedding ring is a plain gold band. It embodies the ancient symbol of a snake swallowing its own tail. It has no beginning and no end and means eternity.
Calling the meal after the wedding the Wedding Breakfast comes from Catholicism, when people did not eat before taking communion. Since not taking communion was a sign of witchcraft, nobody would have eaten. The wedding meal would be the first meal of the day, hence breakfast.
Fathers walk their daughter’s down the aisle and give them away. This symbolizes the bride’s father handing his responsibility for his daughter over to the groom. In Anglo-Saxon times, the bride’s father also gave the groom one of the bride’s slippers. The groom then symbolically hit her on the head with it. The shoe still attends weddings now usually tied to the bumper of the going-away cars.
People naturally follow old wedding traditions at the important times in their lives. Following traditions keeps them in touch with their history and heritage. Many couples now mix the old traditions with the new to make the ideal wedding for them.
