Or explanations anyway.

So I was thinking, what with Fissy and Seine's nuptuals (I hate that word!) coming up soon, I thought I'd ask everybody to chip in interesting wedding traditions and the reason for them, if you know.

And could someone please explain to me why in Canada (and this may be too old a tradition for anyone to know the answer) you throw old shoes after the wedding?

Shoes????????

Never heard and never saw that one in practice. I've always been rather curious about the core traditions myself. Why throw a bunch of flowers at your girls? Why partially undress your bride and throw the garter to the howling bachelor masses?

(Senie and I both are vetoing these two things...though we may put the flower-toss in with a modification...attaching model rocket motors to the arrangement, launching it 300 feet, and watching the people who REALLY want it run for it. ^_^)

Some other one's Senie has mentioned: Jumping over a broom when you get married is supposed to hail from the South during slaving days where it symbolized the wedding's completion or something like that.

Now, what about the "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed Something Blue?" I know Blue is classically a protective colour in old tradition (blue for boys because baby boys apparently were hot commodity with demons and devils in legend...little girls got stuck with pink). Anyone care to explain this strange, but classic little tradition?

I love the idea for the bouquet! Go rocket go! Hahahahahahaha!

As to the garter toss, funny story from my own wedding on that one. When I got married, my sister was dating this boy named Aaron who was pretty tall. Taller than average anyway. For the garter toss he stood behind my cousin Christopher (I know, isn't that strange? He's no Fiss, to be sure.) and the arc and catch was beautiful. It couldn't have gone into Aaron's hand better if it had been practiced repeatedly. In that same motion, he stuffs the garter down Chris' shirt. Now Chris, who was supposed to be planning on being married the next year, dropped to the floor of the cultural hall as though he were being burned by acid, jerked around spasmodically, and frantically dug for the garter. Once he got it in his hand, he chucked it one way and bolted the other. I just about fell over laughing, my mother, however, was not impressed. And that made me laugh all the harder.

I'd heard of the broom jumping - I think it had something to do with sweeping away the old life?

I'd also like to know the origin of the American "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue."

And anybody out there have any idea on the shoes?!?

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" predates the americas, as I'm told. It was just a rhyme provided by someone as a guideline to what to have at a marriage and eventually got turned into a good-luck charm.

My understanding of the bouquet is that it dates back to periods when hygiene was rather low on the priority lists. The perfume off the flowers was intended to mask the brides B.O. The throwing of the bouquet is a more recent bastardisation of simply passing the arrangement on to the next bride (typically weddings were held during the spring, meaning the next ceremony may only be a few days away and could be used again). But as I said, this is just what I've heard and may be wrong.

Eeeh, I'm highly skeptical. For one thing, poor hygiene is whole-body, and no bouquet, no matter how potent, is going to cover that up. It sounds like a freshman anthropologist's explanation to me. I'd assume it started out as symbolic, myself, but that's just me.

Like most Christian traditions, the bouquet has its roots in pagan religion. The flower is a pagan symbol for female sexuality, fertility, and virginity.

"Like most traditions practiced alongside Chrisitan traditions...", you mean.

Awesome! That answered a lot of my wedding related superstition questions. Thanks! Anybody have any more not listed on the link that they want to share?

Sure... yeah... right... ?_?

Well, keep in mind here that a lot of non-christian-weddings still have "Wedding Tradition".

Also, sexuality and weddings are very much intertwined. The kiss, flowers, garters...they all link to the "big event" that night. I would think that this is mostly religion independant, however, as they're very common symbols.

Great site, by the way. ^_^

weddings and marriage have been used outside of Christianity for millenia. I mean, what Christians were around when the Jews practiced it in the ancient BC years? It was also common practice outside of jewish tradition and there were a vast number of gods of fertility and the such.

Agreed- but saying it like "Like most Christian traditions, the bouquet has its roots in pagan religion" has some rather unpleasant and totally incorret inferences about Christianity. The symbolism? Sure. But you're insane if you think Easter is a pagan tradition. The eggs, the bunnies, sure- those were borrowed or adapted culturally. But the death of the God-Man for the propitiation of sins, which is the whole center of Easter and to which the bunnies and eggs are late additions? No, man.

In short, the tradition- like all Christian traditions- is original and powerful in meaning. Easter, Christmas, etc., all have their roots in overwhelmingly potent Christian theology and history. The modern expressions have accreted 2000 years of cultural borrowing, so of course there's elements of symbolism that didn't COME from the church. But whatever their source, their Christian expression points BACK to the church and to the original meaning of the tradition.

With the exception (or one of 'em, anyway) of Santa Claus, who was a 1920's creation by Coca-Cola and has been a bane on the spirituality of hte holiday since.

Of course, no offence to our great and powerful Santa-Master.

<bows down to his Jolly Boots of Doom>

thats actually not entirely true (about santa clause) toze. I did a bit of research on that one *aka googlin wut wut!* and found this:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/santa1.htm

he has his roots from asia minor from roman times. how ever, yes in north america coke has made him into something he isnt.....bah humbug to coke!

Fair enough- but I was referring to "Jolly fat man in red suit" santa, not St. Nick.

I would also warn everyone here that religioustolerance.org is a violent misnomer. It should be Weonlyhatechristians.org. I'll grant you, they're a great source for info on non-Christian organizations, but anything with "Jesus" in it gets pages of "we hate them because they are bad rarararar."

Don't get me wrong, I've referenced 'em, they're useful- they're just not tolerant.

oh I wasnt aware of that, thnx toze.

yah, I wasnt pickin a fight or anything, just pointing out that st. nick wasnt just a coke by-product for advertisement and blah blah. good stuff though there toze, your point was a valid one! he is the bane of the holiday season.


anyway, back on topic. oh right I dont know anything about wedding traditions sorry guys!

While Christianity brings new rituals and meanings to tradtions, most of those traditions predate Christianity. A good example of this is Christmas. It's your standard Winter Solstice celebration -- tree, gifts, feasts -- but the reasoning behind it was changed and rituals, like Midnight Mass, were added on. All evidence even points to Christ not having been born during the winter. Most of this comes from Constantine trying to make Christianity more palpable to the Roman public.

There is a difference between rituals and traditions.

Yes. Silly me. 2000 years of recorded liturgy certainly don't constitute a tradition. Heaven forfend that something like celebrating the birth of Christ, just because it's been done for longer than our civilization has existed, should be considered not only religious ritual but traditional. Especially because, after all, someone ELSE thought of giving gifts during parties FIRST.

If you're younger than me, but we both eat cake on our birthdays, do you not get to age because you're borrowing from my birthday traditions? Are you simply a poor copy of me because our birthdays fall on the same day but mine started first? Of course not- you're an individual with totally different tastes, and a different history, than I am. As far as Constantine- his politics neither negated Christian theology nor locked it into an inescapable politization or culturalization for 1850 years- how odd to hear such a thing suggested!

What, without dragging this thread into a religion/philosophy debate, is your point? Are you irked that people are calling Christmas a tradition? But it is, by the definitions you posted! Are you upset that some guy politizised Christianity 1650 years ago? Rather a long time to hold a grudge, I think. Claiming that Christmas isn't actually Christian is a also bit of a stretch, considering the longstanding uses to which the symbols are now put.

As a neurotic bride-to-be, I signed up to theknot.com soon after Chris asked me to marry him. One of the first emails I got from this site was this one. It elaborates on some of the old wedding traditions.

http://www.theknot.com/ch_article.html? ... 1108112344

The garter and flower toss was apparently representative of how guests used to rip at the poor bride's dress to 'share in her happiness'. To keep from being stripped naked, she'd throw pieces of her outfit into the crowd so they'd fight over them while she escaped. The veil was to protect from evil spirits. Wearing white was because some princess did it at her wedding and people started emulating her. The whole 'pure' thing happened afterwards. And there's a few others that I won't mention here so you'll all have to read the article! MUAHAHAHAHHA... I mean... Nothing.

As to 'jumping the broom', that's purely slave times. See, slaves weren't allowed in churches back then. So, when they wanted to be together forever, they dressed in their Sunday best, gatheredeveryone on the plantation that would come (the rest of the slaves) for witnesses, and jumped over a broom. Nowadays there's a bit of superstition attached to the practice now that says that jumping the broom after the legal ceremony will make your marriage last forever.

I don't buy it and I've always despised that tradition, along with the flower/garter tosses, 'here comes the bride' and recessional music, and a few other things that are making... certain people in my life not like me very much.

I say 'sucks to be them, personally, but that's just me. ^_^

So, that's my two pennies-worth of useless info. I'm learning and asking and hearing and having LOTS of information on weddings forced into my brain almost daily, ESPECIALLY now that there's only 8 months (239 days) till I get to 'make it official'. Not that I'm... counting... or anything...

::whimpers:: WHY CAN'T IT BE MAY ALREADY??!?!?!?! I WANNA MARRY MY BABY!!!! ::cries::

...

...


I'm fine... Really! :+P

Lady Senie

Having just been recently married, this topic interests me greatly. Seriously though, Darren (that'd be my now-husband) and myself created our ceremony pretty much from scratch, keeping only a few "traditional" aspects (I wore a big ol' dress, bouquet n' garter toss just for kicks).

I guess what I'm getting at is this: as long as the ceremony involved is valid to the two people getting married, really that's all that matters, so pick and choose what you want to do traditionally or radically.

I personally opt for totally radical weddings, mostly because the word radical is neato.

I didn't know the bridesmaids used to dress just like the bride, or that the groom used honeymead to get his captured bride drunk so she would get preggers! Interesting find, Senie. And thanks for the broom info. That one's always confused me.

So are you getting married in Canada? Are you already there?

Way to go Hooze! Making your own ceremony is way better I think.

My husband and I didn't keep the top layer of the cake. I had some of my dad's and step mom's after they'd kept it for a year and it was really gross so we just served ours at the reception and said the heck with it!

Anyone heard the wedding tradition where the bachelor who catches the puts it up the leg of the girl who catches the boquet? Well I haden't. Last weddding I attended was my girlfirend's Aunt. She caught the boquet, but my desire to catch the registered nil. Why on earth would I want to touch that, its been up her aunts leg. Well, some other guy gets it ( i could have caught it easy went right to me I had to step back to avoid it) and then everyone starts pushing my girlfriend to sit down for him to put this up her dress up her leg. Now I know she isn't wearing underwear under that dress so as to avoid panty lines. This was not happening. Thus, I got into a fight at a wedding. Not so much a fight as a me standing infront of some guy and pushing him backwards, then everyhting being silent for a moment, then the groom proposing a toast out of nowhere to cover it up. Anyway, Fiss and your lovely lady, to keep harmony in your wedding AVOID THIS TRADITION!

So I was going to look up that it was called a Garter to make sure I was using the right word, as I was drawing a blank and wasent sure. Then I posted while still leaving the word Garter out. Please insert the words garter wherever appropriate.

I hate it when my post is shorter than my sig.