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There are so many traditions we follow at weddings, without knowing why.
Here are 13 interesting facts about weddings.
1. Wedding rings are often placed on the third finger of the left hand because ancient Egyptians believed the vein in that hand (which the Romans called the “vein of love”) ran directly to the heart.
2. The wedding cake is a symbol of good luck and fertility.
3. The bride’s veil traditionally symbolized her youth and virginity. Veils also hid the bride from jealous spirits or the Evil Eye.
4. All over the world, there is a tradition to keep the groom away from the bride on the wedding day. This 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.
5. In many countries, a yellow wedding dress has traditionally been seen as a sign of a wife’s intention to cheat on her husband or of jealousy.
6. Couple feed each other the first slice of their wedding cake to symbolize their commitment to providing for one another.
7. Having a double wedding was considered as bad luck because it’s too much happiness for the evil demons to overlook.
8. Flower girls traditionally threw flower petals in the bride’s path to lead her to a sweet, plentiful future.
9. 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.
10. Pope Innocent III (1160/1-1216) declared that a waiting period should be observed between betrothal and marriage, which led to separate engagement and wedding rings.
11. Some scholars claim the word “honeymoon” comes from the Teutonic custom when newlyweds would hide out and drink hydromel (a fermented honey and water mixture) for 30 days until the moon waned.
12. Before the church declared marriage a sacrament, couples often sought sacred places in nature to wed, such as a hilltop or cliff, where the earth supposedly meets heaven.
13. “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 were 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.
Source: Factretriever