You`ve heard tales of your mother`s courtship and perhaps even your grandmother`s. Like the passing down to each generation of family heirlooms, the traditions of marriage are carried on over hundreds of years.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Dating back to Victorian times, the rhyme originally ends, "... and a penny in your shoe". Something old represents the tie with the bride`s family and her old life - some brides even wear their mother or grandmother`s wedding dress for this purpose. Something new proposes good fortune and success in the bride`s new life and is usually her dress or shoes. Something borrowed could be a pearl necklace or earrings or even a garter borrowed from a happy bride, to supposedly bring good luck to the marriage and ensure the bride will not forsake her friends. Something blue denotes purity and fidelity and modern brides don a blue ribbon pinned to the inside of their dress or a blue garter. The penny in the shoe is a symbol of wealth - not only financially, but also a wealth of happiness throughout her married life.

The Wearing of a Veil
Today`s veils are much shorter and lighter than their predecessors. Ancient Roman and Chinese brides wore red veils and Greek brides wore yellow as the gods supposedly considered these colours lucky. One explanation for the wearing of a veil during marriage, is that it represents a relic of the days when a groom would throw a blanket over the head of the woman of his choice when capturing her. Another is that in the times of arranged marriages, the bride`s face was covered until the groom was committed to her at the ceremony - so he couldn`t run off if he didn`t like the look of her! A third explanation is that the veil was worn to protect the bride from evil spirits that would be floating around on her wedding day.

Carrying The Bride Over The Threshold
As with the veil, there are a number of explanations for the groom carrying his bride over the threshold of their new home. According to Roman custom, everyday objects in the home were represented by gods and when a man decided to marry, approval from the gods and the bestowing of their blessings upon the marriage were his highest priority. The first god the bride would have to please was Vesta - the goddess of the threshold - and to win Vesta`s favour the groom would have to carry his bride across her domain as a gesture of respect.

Another explanation for this is to protect the bride from evil spirits that were thought to be lying in wait under the threshold. It is also believed that if the bride stumbled when entering their new home for the first time, it would bring bad luck and harm to their marriage and the groom carrying her across the threshold would prevent this. (One wonders though, what would happen if the groom stumbled while carrying the bride).

Article source: LifeWorld