Bridal Dresses Pakistani Images Dresses Suits Mehndi Designs Pic Jewellery Mehndi Lehengas 2013
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The term bride appears in combination with many
words, some of which are obsolete. Thus "bridegroom" is a newly
married man, and "bride-bell," "bride-banquet" are old
equivalents of wedding-bells, wedding-breakfast. "Bridal" (from Bride-ale), originally the
wedding-feast itself, has grown into a general descriptive adjective, the bridal ceremony. The bride-cake had
its origin in the Roman confarreatio, an upper-class form of marriage,
the essential features of whose ceremony were the eating by the couple of a
cake made of salt, water and spelt flour, and the holding by the bride of
three wheat-ears, a symbol of plenty.
The cake-eating went out of
fashion, but the wheat ears survived.[6] In
the Middle Ages they were either worn or carried by the bride. Eventually it
became the custom for the young girls to assemble outside the church porch and
throw grains of wheat over the bride, and afterwards a scramble for the grains
took place. In time the wheat-grains came to be cooked into thin dry biscuits,
which were broken over the bride's head, as is the custom in Scotland today, an
oatmeal cake being used. In Elizabeth's
reign these biscuits began to take the form of small rectangular cakes made of
eggs, milk, sugar, currants and spices. Every wedding guest had one at least,
and the whole collection were thrown at the bride the instant she crossed the
threshold. Those that lighted on her head or shoulders were most prized by the
scramblers. At last these cakes became amalgamated into a large one that took
on its full glories of almond paste and ornaments during 's
time. But even today in rural parishes, e.g. north Notts, wheat is thrown over
the bridal couple with the cry "Bread for life and pudding for ever,"
expressive of a wish that the newly wed may be always affluent. The throwing of
rice, a very ancient custom but one later than the wheat, is symbolical of the
wish that the bridal may be fruitful.
The bride-cup was the bowl or in
which the bridegroom pledged the bride, and she him. The
custom of breaking this wine-cup, after the bridal couple had drained its
contents, is common to both the Greek Christians and members of the Jewish
faith. It is thrown against a wall or trodden under foot. The phrase
"bride-cup" was also sometimes used of the bowl of spiced wine
prepared at night for the bridal couple. Bride-favours,
anciently called bride-lace, were at first pieces of gold, silk or other lace,
used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly worn at weddings. These took
later the form of bunches of ribbons, which were at last metamorphosed into
rosettes.
The bride-wain, the wagon in which
the bride was driven to her new home, gave its name to the weddings of any poor
deserving couple, who drove a "wain" round the village, collecting
small sums of money or articles of furniture towards their housekeeping. These were called bidding-weddings, or
bid-ales, which were in the nature of "benefit" feasts. So general is
still the custom of "bidding-weddings" in Wales, that printers
usually keep the form of invitation in type. Sometimes as many as six hundred
couples will walk in the bridal procession.
The bride's wreath is a Christian substitute for the gilt
coronet all Jewish brides wore. The
crowning of the bride is still observed by the Russians, and the Calvinists of
Holland and Switzerland. The wearing of orange blossoms is said to have started
with the Saracens, who regarded them as emblems of fecundity. It was introduced
into Europe by the Crusaders. The bride's
veil is the modern form of
the flammeum or large yellow veil that completely
enveloped the Greek and Roman brides during the ceremony. Such a covering is
still in use among the Jews and the Persians.
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