Weddings : Some Odd Traditions

Weddings : Some Odd Traditions

For the rest of their lives, the man and woman shall be together.

Sounds romantic doesn’t it? 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.

Marriage is present in every culture in some form. 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.

The traditions surrounding marriage have changed throughout the ages, in all the many diversities of each culture. 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 Today’s tall, elaborate and delicately crafted wedding cakes evolved from the simple grooms-cakes made by family members for the bride. 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 also be thought of as a ’pound cake’ because it would be “pounded up” and crumbled then tossed at the 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. People usually regard these arrangements as merely style. However, in the past the layers on the wedding cake were used as a symbol of fertility. Couples would stack these cakes to symbolize how many children they wished the couple to have. It was a long tradition that the more stacks in the cake the more children they would have.

Time to Tie the Knot

Now the truth can be told, tying the knot did not necessarily mean getting knotted together. An ancient custom was that the bride would be wrapped in sheep’s wool, draped around her body with a knot in the front of the covering. This was to symbolize virginity. Untying the knot, was the groom’s privilege during the wedding night.

Best Man or should I say, Secret Agent? The best man’s role was very different in its origins more so then you could ever begin to imagine. It was during tribal times that the best man was to go and get a bride from other tribes and bring her back to his people. He would usually do so by clubbing the poor damsel over the head and drag her back home - just like those comic skits about what cavemen did. The best man would also have the responsibility to keep any angry relatives away. So in the early days, it was the best man who took guard with his club while the groom got hitched.

Current Times

Although we are less barbaric than earlier times, we still see an evolution of the wedding ceremony and its tradition. Having traditions and understanding them will help make your special day full of deep significance and meaning.

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