Why
do the attendants dress alike?
In
order to confuse evil spirits that were thought to lurk at the altar, several
of the 10
witnesses
required at Roman weddings dressed exactly like the bride and groom.
In Europe,
where wedding parties walked to the church together, friends dressed like
the
bride and
groom to trick rejected suitors who might see the couple and put a hex
on them.
Why
does the ceremony end with a kiss?
In
ancient Rome, a kiss was a legal bond that sealed contracts, and thus,
the betrothal. Christianity incorporated the betrothal ceremony into
the marriage ritual. It was also
believed
that when a couple kissed, a part of their soul was left in the other,
with
the exchange
of breath. Occuring at the end of the rites, the kiss announces a
new status.
Why
is there a wedding cake?
A
symbol of good luck and fertility, cake has been a part of weddings since
Roman
times, when
a bun was broken over the bride's head at the ceremony's end and guests
gathered
the crumbs for good luck. In Elizabethan times, bridesmaids baked
buns,
which became
the feast's centerpiece. In the 17th century, a visiting French baker
frosted a
stack of buns so they'd stand upright, creating the first tiered wedding
cake.
Why
is the bouquet tossed?
Traditionally, as the bride left the wedding, she tossed her bouquet to
a friend, so the
friend would
have good luck and protection. The custom evolved to imply that whoever
caught the
bouquet would be the next to wed.