Some Odd Weddings Traditions

Weddings : Some Odd Traditions

Man and woman being together as one, for the rest of their lives.

Doesn’t it sound romantic? For the man and the woman to leave their families and to be as one and form a new family. This is the foundation of the marriage tradition. Throughout the ages of time, having a family and being married are two notions the are so closely related, it is almost impossible to separate them.

Every culture in the world celebrates marriage in some way. Whatever the culture, legal aspect or how their society recognizes marriage, it is still the union of a man and woman living together in one dwelling.

Marriage has evolved in so many ways from the different cultures all throughout the world and over the ages of time. Each unique culture will have a different way to celebrate union of marriage. But in each culture, there has always been one thing that has remained the same - that in every culture, every tribe, marriage has always been celebrated with the utmost of festivities, of singing, eating, and celebrating.

Along with these festivities, man has also adopted a growing number of traditions, each filled with meaning and believe it or not, they can have shocking origins.

The Wedding Cake Long ago the tradition was for the groom’s family to make a simple cake for the bride as a gift and this has now evolved to the fabulous wedding cakes we use to celebrate with today. These small cakes where called, ’groom’s cakes’ and were put under the brides pillow the evening before the wedding event. The idea behind it was that she would sleep on the cake and dream about the groom and their new life together, and this obviously would crush the cake.

This cake could easily be termed as ’pound cake’ because it would be "pound up" and then they would give pieces to people to crumble and toss at the new couple as a sign of fertility. That is where the today’s custom of tossing rice on the bride and groom originally came from.

Cakes during weddings are usually stacked up in large layers. Of course, the more layers the more elegant the cake looks. The decorations on the cake are a fashionable choice of the bride and groom for their guest to enjoy. However, in the past the layers on the wedding cake were used as a symbol of fertility. The original tradition for wedding cakes was that the stacks symbolized how many children the couple might have. So in the past, the higher the stack, the more children they would have..

Tying the Knot

You’ve heard of ’tying the knot’, that is one that has a very old origin indeed, but it did not necessarily mean being knotted together. During ancient tribal times, the bride would usually be wrapped in a sheep skin with a knot out in front. It was a symbol of virginity. Untying the knot, was the groom’s privilege during the wedding night.

Best Man or should I say, Secret Agent? The best man used to play a different role in the early middle ages. During tribal times, it was the best man’s duty to abduct potential brides from other tribes. He would usually club the tribal lady over the head and then begin to carry her back to his home tribe, sounds like something from a comic strip but it’s true. It was also the best man’s job to ward off the angry relatives of the bride. So in the early days, it was the best man who took guard with his club while the groom got hitched.

Today

Although we are less barbaric than earlier times, we still see an evolution of the wedding ceremony and its tradition. These traditions are filled with meaning and can only serve to make your wedding day more memorable.