Showing posts with label wedding traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding traditions. Show all posts

Friday, April 21, 2023

Origins of Scottish wedding blackening tradition

The Scottish pre-wedding ritual known as blackening practiced in the Highlands, Islands and rural parts of Scotland is a strange wedding tradition. In my book, it is disgusting. The groom and/or bride are publicly taken out and drenched with a wide array of ingredients like slop, molasses, flour, feathers, as well as smelly disgusting things like fish guts and cow dung. I’ve read that this practice as it is done today is actually a corrupted variation of an old foot washing/hair washing tradition when the purpose of the blackening was to ensure the groom was dirty before the washing. How could today's blackening tradition be related to foot washing?

 

Scottish wedding blackening tradition


Blackening foot washing

I did some digging and found answers in “A Highland Wedding in Bygone Days” published in The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 13., 1888. The origins of the blackening tradition can be traced to a foot washing custom. In this case, the foot washing took place the night before the wedding and involved the groom. He and his friends gathered at his house using the guise of washing his feet for his wedding. Just like many bachelor parties today, a good deal of practical joking took place. One of these jokes included using soot, dirt, and other blackening agents mixed with the water and rubbed on the feet and even on the face of the bridegroom.

If the groom was fortunate enough to escape, his friends chased him down, and if he was lucky enough to find a good hiding place and eluded them, it was considered a good omen of future prosperity. When his friends gave up looking for him, he spent the rest of the night dancing.

blackened feet

Wedding shoes custom

On the Monday night after the first public announcement of their impending marriage the young couple secretly visited the shoemaker for the marriage shoes. The groom paid for both pairs. (In Greece it is still tradition for the groom to buy the bride’s shoes). They were delivered the morning of the wedding with money tucked inside, and if the groom delivered the shoes himself, he took the time to put them on her feet. However, it was perfectly acceptable for someone else to deliver the shoes. 


As for the money in the shoes, this differs from the longstanding tradition of placing a lucky Sixpence in the bride’s shoe because that is done by the bride’s father as a symbol of prosperity, love and unity. However, there is another Scottish wedding tradition in which the groom popped a silver coin under his left foot. I don’t have any more info on what money the groom slipped into her shoe or why, but if I learn more, I’ll be sure to update this section.

Money in wedding shoe

Other Scottish wedding superstitions

As long as we are looking back at the history of Scottish wedding traditions/superstitions, here are a few lesser-known wedding superstitions once practiced in Scotland:

  • Unlucky to get married in May

  • Tuesdays and Thursdays were favored for weddings because the rest of the days were thought to be unlucky.

  • A day during the waxing moon was always preferred.

  • When the bride entered her new house for the first time she had to be careful to step over the threshold if she would be lucky.

  • A cake of bread and a cheese, both of which had been previously either broken or cut into pieces, were placed on a plate and thrown over the bride’s had as she entered the door. If the plate broke it was a good omen as to having a son as heir. 

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Photo credits: Leanne Townsend

 


Thursday, January 5, 2023

Polish Bread and salt wedding tradition

Weddings offer the perfect opportunity for couples to embrace wedding traditions tied to familial cultural roots. Among polish wedding traditions, one that many brides and grooms choose to include on their wedding day is the bread and salt tradition. 

Historically, bread and salt is at the center of traditional welcome ceremonies in Slavic and European cultures as well as Middle Eastern cultures. Over time it has been adopted as a pleasant and meaningful way to celebrate two families coming together as the parents of the bride and groom welcome the newlywed couple to the wedding reception.

 


Bread and salt tradition

While the bread and salt wedding tradition is a European tradition, its origins are generally attributed to Poland where the welcoming with bread and salt is an honored custom. Today it is most often observed as part of the wedding celebration as newlyweds are greeted with bread and salt by their parents at the wedding reception. An announcement is made:

“This is a long cherished Polish tradition which has been passed down through the centuries. It symbolizes the union of the Bride and Groom and their families.”

The parents of the bride and groom greet the newlyweds with a loaf of wedding bread sprinkled with salt and a glass of wine. The parents say, "According to our Old Polish tradition, we greet you with bread and salt so that your home might always enjoy abundance." Then they offer the bread to the newlyweds to eat followed by a glass of wine from which the bride and groom drink. The parents then kiss the bride and groom and welcome then to the family.


Symbolism of bread and salt ceremony

  • Bread: Represents the parents' hope that their children will never experience hunger or need. 
  • Salt: Salt sprinkled on the bread is a reminder to the couple that their life may be difficult at times, and they must learn to cope with life's struggles together. 
  • Wine: Wine symbolizes the parents' hope that the bride and groom will never thirst and will have a life of good health and cheer and that they will share the company of many good friends. 
  • Kiss: This parents' kiss is a symbol of their love and unity.
 

 

Sta Lot

The bread and salt ceremony concludes with the song Sta Lot. It wishes good luck to the couple that lasts for 100 years. This celebration is big and wedding guests really enjoy it. Here is a rough translation of the main verse:

May their star of prosperity

Never extinguish!

Never extinguish!

And whoever won't sing with us

May they sleep under the table!

May they sleep under the table!


At the conclusion of this short ceremony, the bride, groom, and their parents proceed to their tables and await the saying of grace before the meal.

 

Photo credits: Forever Video, Polishroots