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Kurs: -- English - Upper-Intermediate Materijali vezani uz ovu lekciju: - Test wedding customs - Test wedding customs - Test wedding customs - Wedding Customs (PDF dokument) Bouquet For ancient Greeks and Romans, the bouquet was a pungent mix of garlic and herbs or grains. The garlic was supposed to ward off evil spirits and the herbs or grains were to insure a fruitful union. In ancient Poland, it was believed that sprinkling sugar on the bride's bouquet kept her temper sweet. Guests in ancient times would tear off part of the bride’s gown as tokens of good luck, leading to the tradition of the bride throwing both her garter and her bouquet.
Traditionally, 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 in Europe. Other colors were worn for symbolic reasons: blue meant constancy and green meant youth. As years passed, white was worn as a symbol of purity. Today, white merely symbolizes the wedding and is worn by any bride, no matter if it is their second marriage. Green is typically not worn at Scottish weddings because it is the color of fairies and an omen of revenge. It is considered unlucky to even eat green vegetables at a wedding.
The first weddings comprised of a groom taking his bride by capture. He would take her somewhere hidden away so her relatives and villagers couldn't find them. There they stayed for one moon phase and drank mead, a wine made from honey, to make them more amorous. Thus, the word "honeymoon" was born. Today, the honeymoon is the time when the couple can get away for awhile.
The wedding ring has traditionally been worn on the third finger of the left hand because it was believed that a vein in this finger ran directly to the heart. The third finger of the left hand has become the customary wedding-ring finger for all English-speaking cultures. Many cultures in centuries even reaching into the B.C. era considered a circle, and thus a ring, an emblem of eternity. Rings have no beginning and no end so it became popular to exchange them at marriage events. For the ancient Egyptians, the circle shape had an additional meaning (to worship the sun) and even the hole where a finger is placed had its own meaning (a door leading to the past and future).
One of the oldest wedding traditions, the custom of throwing rice, originated with the ancient Hindus and Chinese. In these cultures, rice is the symbol of fruitfulness and prosperity. Tossing it after the ceremony was believed to bestow fertility upon the bride and groom. Eating rice and other grains was thought to guarantee health, wealth and happiness for the newlyweds. Today, rice tossing is being replaced by the more ecologically friendly birdseed tossing, because uncooked rice is damaging to birds that eat it off the church lawn. Nearly all cultures have showered the wedding couple with symbolic food. For example, the French throw wheat, Sicilians throw wheat bread and salt, and the English throw pieces of cake. Early Romans or Greeks threw nuts, dates, and seed-bearing plants. Bulgarians have thrown figs.
Mystique and romance has surrounded the veil for more than one thousand years. Originally, the veil is thought to have been used to hide the bride from abductors, just as the similar dress of her bridesmaids was meant to do. But a more romantic interpretation evolved later which believed that concealment (as the bride's face beneath a veil) rendered what was hidden more valuable. Another early interpretation of the veil was that it symbolized youth and virginity.
A bride is traditionally carried over the threshold either to symbolize her reluctance to leave her father’s home or because evil spirits hovered over the threshold of a house - so she was lifted over the entrance to protect her from the spirits. The superstition that the bridegroom must not see his bride before the wedding stems from the days when marriages were arranged and the groom might never have seen the bride. There was the chance that if he saw her, he might bolt. Other sources say that to see the bride in her dress is peering into the future, which can bring bad luck.
Wedding bells are an important symbol of a wedding. Traditionally, it was believed that demons were scared off by loud sounds, so following a wedding ceremony, anything that could make noise was used to create a diversion. The church bells would be rung as the couple walked down the aisle together or came out of the church. The wedding bells are often rung today as part of the wedding ceremony, to begin and end the service.
The bachelor or stag party supposedly started in fifth-century Sparta where military compatriots would feast and toast one another on the eve of a wedding, like warriors going to battle. Today, this is not just an average night for drinking in the pub or bar. It has a tradition and mystique associated with it involving pranks, tricks and lots of drinking usually at the groom’s expense.
Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride "Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride" dates to about the sixteenth century. It was believed that if young maiden who had been a bridesmaid three times was unable to catch the eye of unmarried males, then she never would. But, if she served seven times as a bridesmaid, the spell was broken and the woman was thought to be a sure bet for marriage.
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