Wedding traditions range from precious to archaic and strange.
If I say the words, “wedding night,” what comes to mind? In today’s Western
cultures, couples work to create a special romantic destination that’s both
special and memorable. But that wasn’t always the case. Just a few hundred
years ago, the tradition of the bedding ceremony, also known as the
consummation ceremony was a wedding night celebration that included witnesses…sometimes
a gallery of witnesses.
Consummation meaning
In Webster’s 1818 Dictionary, the definition of
the word “consummation” in relation to marriage is “the most intimate union of
the sexes, which completes the connubial relation.” Today’s Cambridge
Dictionary defines it as “the act of making a marriage or romantic relationship
complete by having sex.” The consummation ceremony provided witness to this
act.
The Consummation Ceremony
The purpose of the consummation ceremony was to confirm
the consummation of the marriage. According to Eric Metaxas, author of Martin
Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World, “Sixteenth-century
marriages in Germany were typically two-stage affairs. There was first a small
ceremony with a handful of witnesses and then a larger event with a church
procession and guests from out of town. But the initial event was capped with
the consummation of the marriage, so the marriage—actually called the
Kopulation, which is etymologically related to the more anodyne word
“couple”—was in fact consummated before the wedding.” If the consummation didn’t
take place, then there was no wedding. Today, we think of things the other way
around. Marriage ceremony, THEN the consummation of the marriage. But back them
the consummation came first—in full view of the witnesses. In most traditions,
these witnesses included family, friends, and neighbors.
According to historian, Alison Weir, this consummation
ritual was also practiced by the royals in in medieval times. “The royal newlyweds
were put to bed by their wedding guests, toasted, and then blessed by a bishop
or priest.” Historian Lucy Worseley elaborates further saying the “room would
have been full of people cheering them on.”
What prompted me to look deeper into this topic is
that Martin Luther (a former monk) and his wife Kathie (a former nun) took part
in their betrothal night consummation with witnesses in the room. Among their
witnesses were Luther’s closest friend, Justus Jonas, a man by the name of Lucas
Cranach and his wife, Barbara, who Kathie lived with before the wedding, as
well as another local friend named John Apel who was chosen by the university
to serve as the “official witness” to the marriage. In Luther’s day, they considered
the marriage bed to be holy, and celebrated in the consummation with a joy shared
by all present.
In general, witnesses of the bedding ceremony watched
the bride and groom upon their wedding bed from within the room. Sometimes, the
witnesses left just before the actual consummation, but in other cases people
circled the bed to be sure the consummation was clearly viewed. In some situations, witnesses observed the couple from an
observation deck above the bed. Can you imagine!
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Source: Martin
Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World
