10 furcsa tény az esküvőkről – olvasmány szószedettel

May is traditionally a month when lots of engaged couples tie the knot. Weddings are spectacular events with plenty of food, lots of guests and various traditions. Some of these traditions are common but some of them are weird and are unique to a certain country. We’ve compiled ten interesting wedding facts for you to read about in this article.

1. The wedding dress wasn’t always white

The tradition of wearing a white wedding gown started with Queen Victoria in 1840. Before then brides used to wear their best dress for a wedding in no set colour. White became popular after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Victoria wore a white gown trimmed with Honiton lace. Illustrations of the wedding were widely published, and many brides wanted to copy the Queen and opted for white.

2. The wedding veil protected the bride

Nowadays a veil is a romantic addition to a wedding dress. It’s usually a piece of tulle fabric that complements the dress. But in the past, it used to have a different function. In ancient times a bride wrapped in a veil from head to toe represented a modest and untouched maiden. The veil also hid the bride away from evil spirits who might want to thwart her happiness.

3. “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

The tradition of a bride wearing “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” comes from an Old English rhyme. Something old represents continuity; something new offers optimism for the future; something borrowed symbolizes borrowed happiness and good luck; something blue stands for purity, love, and fidelity, the three key qualities for a solid marriage.

4. Wedding cakes weren’t always sweet

Wedding cakes originate from Ancient Rome, where marriage ceremonies ended with a scone-like wheat or barley cake broken over the bride’s head for luck and fertility. Guests scrambled to pick up the crumbs in order to take home some of that good luck. The wedding cake is considered to bring good luck to everyone who eats it.

5. The honeymoon has actually something to do with honey

The word honeymoon is derived from the Scandinavian practice of drinking mead, or fermented honey, during the first month of the marriage – measured by one moon cycle – in order to improve the likelihood of conception. Today most couples travel on honeymoon to be on their own, but it wasn’t always that way. In 19th century Britain couples used to go on a bridal tour and visited friends and family who could not attend the wedding ceremony.

6. Wedding rings are worn on your ring finger for a reason

Historically, wedding rings have been worn on every finger, even the thumb. Nowadays, wedding rings are most commonly worn on the fourth finger of the left or right hand. It was believed the ring finger had a vein that connected directly to the heart, so lovers’ hearts would be connected by their rings. Romans called this the Vena Amoris or vein of love. So, to solidify a union founded in love, a ring was placed on that finger to signify the romance that the newly-wed couple shared. Although anatomy shows that all fingers have venous connections to the heart and no such singular vein exists, this adorable symbolism lives on.

7. Good luck wedding day superstitions

The English believe a spider found in a wedding dress means good luck. According to Hindu tradition rain on your wedding day is considered good luck. Egyptian women pinch the bride on her wedding day for good luck. Greeks believe that if you want your marriage to be sweet, the bride should carry a sugar cube in some way during the wedding. The most common way to do this in the past was to place the sugar cube in one of her gloves during the ceremony. Not a lot of brides wear gloves today though, but somehow inserting the sugar cube into the bouquet could work. Bells ringing on your wedding day bring a harmonious family life with every chime. In Ireland, many brides attach small bells to their bouquet. 

8. Bad luck wedding day superstitions

Saturday is the most popular day of the week to say “I do,” but according to English folklore, this weekend day will doom a couple to a life of bad luck. To be extra safe, you should avoid the 13th and the month of May altogether. In Chinese culture, being given a clock as a wedding present is bad luck, because the word for clock in Mandarin also means the end. In some countries, cloudy skies and wind are believed to cause stormy marriages.

9. Weird wedding customs

At Swedish weddings if either member of the couple leaves the other’s side, guests rush up to steal a kiss. If, say, the bride goes to the bathroom, guests might line up to kiss the groom. In Borneo, the bride and groom must not leave their home or use the bathroom for three whole days before their wedding ceremony. In Mauritania, obesity is regarded as desirable so older women called “fatteners” force the would-be bride to consume enormous amounts of camel milk and millet in order to make them as fat as possible.

10. Weird wedding gifts

In South Korea, a groom offers his mother-in-law geese to symbolize fidelity, and the couple is gifted wooden ducks at the ceremony. In Vietnam, on the morning of the wedding, the future in-laws give pink chalk to the bride to paint a rosy future full of happiness for the couple. In Holland, the bride and the groom are given lily of the valley bulbs to plant in their yard to symbolize their new joy together. In Sudan only married women wear perfume so before the wedding ceremony, female relatives mix the bride a custom fragrance. In the Philippines, a chamber pot, called an arinola, is said to bring good luck to a new couple so they traditionally get it.

Az angolnak két-két különböző szava is van a menyasszonyra és a vőlegényre. Az esküvő előtt a fiancée szót használják a menyasszonyra, a fiancé szót pedig a vőlegényre. Az esküvő napján a menyasszony bride, míg a vőlegény groom vagy bridegroom.

via GIPHY