Useless Information For A Month of Weddings

As I write this, the month of June is just a few short days away and, as we all know, the month of June is an extremely popular month to become married. Twice in my life I have served as best man and have consequently been called upon to offer a toast at the wedding banquet. Blissfully now, at this stage of my life, my friends are married and the likelihood of being called upon to perform such a duty again seems very remote.

Still, during the course of my life I have collected all manner of trivia concerning weddings. For years my family has referred to my vast (by their estimation, at least) assortment of trivia and anecdotes as “Steve’s Useless Information,” but occasionally – just occasionally – some of the stuff that floats around in my head can, indeed, be useful.

Since many of you, my dear readers, will probably be attending a wedding this June, I present below an assortment of “useless” information on weddings and the wedding rituals that you may find purpose for if you are called upon to toast (or if you simply want to be annoying at the reception). I should note that I never used any of the following material at the weddings I attended, but that shouldn’t discourage any of you from using the following freely and often at the next wedding you attend. So, without further ado, here’s an assortment of “useless information” on weddings.

The origin of the word “wedding” is quite interesting (to some of us, at least). In the past, while brides were sometimes kidnapped, although the preferred method of marriage was by purchasing a bride. A “bride-price” could be land, political alliances, livestock, cash, etc. While the Anglo-Saxon word “wedd” meant that the groom would vow to marry the woman, it also meant the “bride-price” to be paid by the groom to the bride’s father. The original meaning of the root word in wedding was literally to gamble or wager. Some might say that this is quite apropos.

The phrase “to tie the knot” or “tying the knot” originated in Roman times when brides wore a girdle of rope tied with numerous knots. It was the groom’s duty to untie these knots, though when this untying took place remains unclear.

The term “honeymoon” can be traced back almost 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, where it was common practice for the bride’s father to supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink for a full month following the wedding. The Babylonians used a lunar calendar (i.e. a month equaled a full phase of the moon) and mead, of course, is powerful liquor made from fermented honey. Put them both together and you get…“honeymoon.”

The tradition of carrying a bride across the threshold stems from the belief that a bride had to enter her new home through the front door and that if she tripped bad luck would befall (pardon the pun) the couple. In order to avoid the bride tripping the groom began to simply carry his bride into their new home. I’m sure this is accurate but I wonder if the real reason is that the bride’s flowing dress makes it impossible for her to clearly see her feet in relation to doorways that actually have thresholds, thus the likelihood of her tripping, if left to her own ambulation, is very high.

In ancient times, wedding rings, primarily made of iron, were thought to protect the bride from evil spirits. Early Roman rings, made of gold to symbolize everlasting love and commitment, were often carved with two clasped hands. Other rings had a key carved with which a woman was thought to be able to open her husband’s heart.

The tradition of a diamond engagement ring began with King Maximillian in 1477 when he gave Mary of Burgundy a diamond ring to signify his enduring love.

When standing at the altar, the bride always stands to the groom’s left. This tradition originated when brides were still kidnapped: the man would place the woman he chose on his left in order to keep his right hand free to wield his sword.

Ah, those wacky Europeans! During the 14th century having a piece of the bride’s clothing was thought to bring good luck. The result of this belief was many a scantily clad bride. In order to offset this practice, the bride began tossing portions of her clothing to the guests. One of these portions was her garter, which was to go to the men, but since the men would frequently get drunk and try to take the garter away before it was officially tossed, it became tradition for the groom to remove the garter and toss it to the men. With the advent of this change, the bride began tossing her bouquet to the unwed female guests.

And, finally, the story behind that annoying (to me, at least) tradition of clinking glasses in order to get the bride and groom to inhale each other’s face. There are really two stories here, each plausible in there own right. The first story involves the origin of toasts. During less enlightened times, one of the chief methods for disposing of an enemy was poisoning. Thus, at social events (more often than not political in nature), it became commonplace for the host to accept a portion of his guests drink to be poured into his own glass. The host would then drink from his glass to show the guest that the drink contained no poison. If, however, the guest trusted his host, rather than pour some liquid into his host’s glass he would simply clink glasses and they would both drink from their respective vessels. Hence, clinking of glasses came to signify both a bond and a trust.

The second story is that the Devil is thought to frequent festive occasions, and since a wedding is one of the most festive of occasions the Devil was thought to be lurking, waiting to spoil the wedding and the marriage. The Devil, however, has a weakness in this tradition: he can’t stand to be around ringing bells. Thus, whenever possible, bells were rung periodically throughout the celebration and (you guessed it!) in the absence of bells the clinking of glass was thought to chase away that bad old Devil!