Marriage, as a custom, goes back to the very earliest history of man. It has passed through three stages. The first was marriage by capture. Primitive man simply stole the woman he wanted for his wife. Then came marriage by contract or purchase. A bride was brought by a man. Finally came the marriage based on mutual love. But even today we have traces of the first two stages. ‘Giving the bride away’ is a relic of the time when the bride was really sold. The ‘best man’ at weddings today probably goes back to the strong-armed warrior who helped the man carry off his captured bride. And the honeymoon itself was the period during which the bridegroom was forced to hide his captured bride until her people grew tired of searching for her!
Today we have ‘weddings’ without realizing that this very word goes back to one of the early stages of marriage. Among the Anglo-Saxons, the ‘wed’ was the money, horses, or cattle which the groom gave for bringing the bride from her father.
Of course, when it comes to wedding customs, most of them can be traced back to ancient meanings which have long been forgotten. For example, the ‘something blue’ which wear is borrowed from Israel. In those times brides were told to wear a blue ribbon on the borders of their dress because blue was the color of purity, love, and faithfulness.
At weddings we ask, ‘ Who giveth this woman to this man?’ Then we are going back to the times when a bride was actually purchased. It is believed that the custom of having bridesmaids goes back to Rome times when there had to be ten witnesses at the marriage ceremony.
Why do we tie shoes on the back of the cars of newly-weds? It is believed that this goes to the custom of exchanging or giving away of shoes to indicate that authority had been ex-changed. So the shoe suggests that now the husband rather than the father has authority over the bride.
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