You’re planning the biggest day of your life to date, and everyone has a piece of advice or a superstition to share. Here are some fun wedding facts and traditions you can use to learn where they came from, how they started, and have the information to choose the ones which are best suited for your individual likes:
As far back as the Greeks, the bouquet carried by the bride down the aisle was a fragrant mix of garlic and herbs, the more pungent, the better. Garlic was believed to ward off evil spirits and the herbs were to insure that a son would be born. The ancient Poles believed that sprinkling sugar on the bride’s flower bouquet kept her sweet.
The wedding cake has always played an important part in the wedding, but it wasn’t always a cake. It used to be a piled high hill of breads and biscuits which were then distributed to the poor after the ceremony. This is also believed to be where B.Y.O.B. originated from: Bring your own bread. Ancient Romans broke soft bread over the bride’s head to symbolize abundance in the marriage.
Originally, brides did not wear white wedding gowns. Through the 18th century, most brides just wore their Sunday best to their wedding. Red was a favorite during the middle ages. (It’s true!) Other colors were symbolic as well: blue meant the marriage would be consistent, that the bride and groom would always treat each other as well as they did on their special day. White was originally worn as a symbol of purity. Today, white is the most common color worn by any bride.
The first kiss a bride and groom share at the close of the ceremony was done because people believed that here the couple exchanged spirits with their breath and part of their souls mingled forever.
Far from the traditional weddings of today, originally the groom would just kidnap the bride and take her to his village. There they stayed for one moon phase and drank mead, a wine make from honey, to make them more amorous. Thus, the word “honeymoon” was born.
The wedding ring was always traditionally been worn on the third finger of the left hand because it was believed that the main vein in this finger ran directly to the heart.
One of the oldest wedding traditions, the custom of throwing rice, originated with the ancient Hindus and Chinese. Rice is the symbol of fruitfulness and prosperity. Today, we wouldn’t even think of it and use birdseed instead because uncooked rice is damaging to birds.
The veil is thought to have been used to hide the bride from kidnappers, just as the similarity of the dresses of her bridesmaids to hers was meant to do. It later was done to confuse Satan’s imps in the church who might want to bring harm to the bride or render her unable to have children. The Imps couldn’t tell which woman standing at the altar was the bride, and so would flee screeching out of the church.