Download History Of Weddings

Customs and Traditions
Marriage by Capture
 The bride is captured by the groom or his tribe/clan
 May be as a result of war
Marriage by Purchase
 Groom (or his family) pays the bride’s family a price to
acquire her = “brideprice”
Or
 The Bride’s family pays the groom or his family to
marry their daughter = “dowry”
 In either situation the money is generally for the use of
the women to support her if her husband dies
Marriage for Choice
 The Bride and Groom choose one another freely
 Marriage for choice does not necessarily imply that the
marriage is for love
Where Does the Christian Wedding Ceremony Originate?
Christian wedding customs draw heavily from the
traditions of ancient Israel and ancient Rome
Ancient Jewish Weddings
 The Bride was the center of the ceremony
 Jewish weddings took place in the home of the Bride
Betrothal:
 Arranged by the fathers who also settled the amount of
the dowry
 Ketubah agreed upon and signed – at this point the
couple was legally married but did not live together
 Usually the betrothal period lasted for a year
The Wedding:
 Groom and his friends
processed from his
house to the home of
the bride
 Bride was then escorted
by her parents and
bridesmaids to the
groom’s house
 The bride and groom
sponsored a large feast
for family and friends –
this could last for
several days
Wedding at Cana
John August Swannson
Ancient Roman Weddings
 Arranged by fathers of bride and groom
 Betrothal – a promise to marry made before relatives
and friends. The bride received a ring as part of the
ceremony
Ancient Roman wedding ring
 Before the wedding
ceremony, the bride
offered her toys at an
altar to the family gods
 Brides wore a white dress
with a red or orange veil
crowned with flowers
 Bride was presented to the
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groom by her matron of
honor
Priests offered a sacrifice to
ascertain if the marriage
would be happy and fertile
Wedding contract was read
aloud
Bride’s family hosted
wedding party
Bride and groom were
escorted to groom’s house
Early Christian Weddings
 Followed the Roman practice but omitted customs not
compatible with Christian moral teachings
 Forbade divorce
 Couple was usually blessed by their parish priest on
the Sunday following the ceremony – origin of the
Nuptial Blessing
Weddings in the Early Middle Ages
 After Fall of Roman
Empire, the Christian
Church began to register
marriages in parish
books
 Became more common
for the wedding
ceremony to take place at
the parish church rather
than at home
 Religious symbols began
to have a larger role in
weddings
 The priest became the
official witness that the
marriage had taken place
– but the sacrament was
performed by the couple
 A couple could exchange
vows privately without
any witnesses
 The wedding ceremony
was always followed by a
banquet
Weddings in the Late Middle Ages
 Marriage was a legal affair which united two families
 The custom began of the parents “giving the daughter
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away” as part of the Church ceremony
A dowry was important
There were no special wedding clothes – but white was
not worn by brides
Brides never wore veils – they wore their hair loose
with perhaps a wreath of flowers over it
The exchange of vows took place on the church porch,
followed by Mass inside the church
 Gifts
 The bride provided a
dowry
 She also provided the
linens and other
essentials for the home
 The groom provided the
home
 It was a tradition for the
groom to offer the bride
a gift on the morning
after the wedding –
usually a piece of
valuable jewelry
Renaissance
Botticelli’s Wedding Banquet
Protestant Reformation
 The Reformers did not
consider marriage to be a
sacrament
 In response, the Council
of Trent emphasized the
sacramental aspect of
marriage and its
indissolubility
Wedding of Martin Luther and
Katharina von Bora
Post-Tridentine Catholicism
 For a marriage to be
valid, the exchange of
vows must occur before a
priest and two witnesses
 Catholics and
Protestants marrying
one another cannot get
married in a church
ceremony
The Engagement Period
 Originally an engagement lasted between 9 and 12
months
 This as to insure that the bride was not pregnant by
someone other than the groom
Engagement Rings
 Medieval – to show the woman now “belongs” to the
man
 860 AD Pope Nicholas I decreed that the engagement
ring must be part of the betrothal process. The ring
should be valuable enough to signify the serious
intention of the groom to go through with this
marriage.
Diamond Engagement Rings
 Ancient Romans
believed that diamonds
were sacred to Venus, the
goddess of love
 The first known
diamond engagement
ring was given to Mary,
Duchess of Burgundy by
the Holy Roman
Emperor Maximilian I in
the 16th century
Wedding Rings
 Originated in ancient Egypt as a symbol that marriage
is forever
 Romans originally used rings made of iron; switched
to gold or silver in 3rd century AD
 The custom of placing the ring on the fourth finger of
the right hand is ancient – there was a belief that a
vein went from that finger directly to the heart
 This is not a universal custom – many Europeans place
the ring on the right hand, as do members of the
Orthodox Church
Bridal Shower
 In the Middle Ages, the bride was expected to provide
household linens and other goods when she married –
prior to her wedding her friends would gather to help
her complete the sewing of these
 By the 1800’s it was a custom to have a party for brides
where her friends gifted her with the things she
needed to provide for her home
 A tradition says that the term “shower” came from a
party where the bride’s friends put gifts into an
umbrella then opened it over the bride so that the gifts
“showered” down onto her
Bachelor Party
 Originated in ancient
Sparta where men lived in
barracks with their
comrades
 On the night before his
wedding, his friends gave
him a party to wish him
good luck
 It gave the groom one last
opportunity to be with his
friends and swear them
continued allegiance
White Wedding Dress
 Ancient Greeks brides wore white – as did all members
of the wedding party. White symbolized joy.
 Roman brides wore white
 Throughout the Middle Ages, brides wore any color
they wished, although wedding clothes for both the
bride and groom often were banded in blue which
symbolized loyalty
 Anne of Brittany (1499)
was the first bride since
ancient times to wear a
white dress – but the
custom did not catch on
 Queen Victoria of
England wore a white
dress for her marriage to
Prince Albert in 1840 –
this set a trend and white
dresses became popular
from this time on
Queen Victoria
Wedding Portrait
Wedding Veil
 Roman brides wore a red,
orange or yellow veil which
was believed to chase away
evil spirits who were attracted
to weddings
 Ancient Jewish brides wore a
veil to symbolize the purity
and modesty of the bride and
that no man other than her
new husband had the right to
see her face
 In many ancient cultures,
married women always were
veiled in public – wearing a
veil was symbolic of being
married
 In the Middle ages, brides
wore their hair loose at
their weddings without any
covering as a symbol of
their virginity
 The wedding veil became
popular in the 19th century
 According to legend,
George Washington’s
grand-daughter Nellie
Custis was the first to wear
a lace veil at her wedding
to Lawrence Lewis
Eleanor Custis Lewis
Weddings on Saturday
 Early Christians married on Sunday
 English Puritans believed it was inappropriate to
marry on Sunday, because it was the Lord’s Day
 Most Puritan weddings took place on Saturday – and
this custom became widespread in the United States
Giving the Bride Away
 Through the 18th century this was symbolic of the
woman’s change of ownership – from her father to her
husband
 In some cultures and religions both the bride and
groom are escorted to the altar by their parents –
symbolic of their beginning a new family
The Bride Standing on the Groom’s Left
 From when marriages were commonly by capture or in
the Middle Ages when someone else might try to
capture an heiress before her wedding
 It enabled a right-handed groom to easily reach his
sword if anyone objected to the wedding
Bridesmaids
 In ancient Rome, a bride
English bridesmaids
had 10 of her friends who
dressed similar to her to
confuse evil spirits
 In Middle Ages they
helped the bride at the
wedding
 In Britain, the
bridesmaids are young
girls – usually relatives of
the bride
Flowers
 Brides have carried flowers in almost all cultures and
time periods
 Sometimes the flowers have symbolic meanings
 The groom’s boutonniere is a carry-over from the
Medieval practice of a knight wearing his lady’s colors
to display his love for her
Throwing the Bouquet and Garter
 In ancient Rome, anything
touched by the bride on
her wedding day was
considered to be lucky
 The custom of throwing a
garter (Medieval women
had several – they held her
stockings up) was to keep
the men from tearing them
off because they were
considered good luck!
The Wedding Cake
 In Ancient Roman wedding ceremonies the bride and
groom shared a wheat cake that had been blessed by
the priests – this was to insure fertility
 In the Middle Ages guests brought small cakes to the
wedding and piled them on a table – the bride and
groom were urged to reach across the cakes to kiss one
another
 In England, wedding cakes are traditionally fruitcakes
– the nuts and dried fruits symbolize fertility
 Cutting the wedding cake together symbolizes the
shared future of the newly married couple
Typical Medieval Wedding Cake
Throwing Rice or Flower Petals
 Symbolizes fertility
 What is thrown varies by
culture:
 Rice = China
 Wheat = northern
Europe
 Hard candy – Italy
 Nuts – Eastern Europe
Carrying the Bride over the Threshold
 Ancient = remnant of a
time when many brides
were captured
 Europe – unlucky if the
bride stumbled the first
time she entered her new
home
The Honeymoon
 In the Middle Ages, the bride and groom often did not
know one another well before their marriage, so this
was a chance to get to know one anohter
 Since Biblical times, a newly married couple were
given time away from societal obligations (mostly
military for the man) to begin a new family