The Symbolism Of Marriage In Medieval Times

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Marriage has been a social institution for millennia. The first recorded instance of what we think of as marriage, between one woman and one man took place in approximately 2350 B.C. in Mesopotamia. These early marriages were designed to ensure that any offspring the woman bore could be safely assumed to be of her husband’s seed and to cement bonds between families(Urlin 40). Alternatively, some war-like tribes held the practice of kidnapping potential brides from rival villages. If the bride was not captured but rather of the same tribe as the groom weddings were typically handled like business arrangements with little to no fanfare and consisted of a bride price paid by the groom, usually livestock or other valuable goods, in exchange …show more content…

In ancient Rome unsweetened barley bread was the traditional food and the groom would break a piece of it over the bride’s head to symbolize the breaking of her virginity, the hopes of fertility, and the dominance of the groom over the bride. The guests would then scramble to pick up any crumbs because it was believed that they carried good fortune. In Medieval times guests would bring spiced cakes, buns, or rolls to the wedding and pile them up as high as possible. The bride and groom would attempt to kiss over this pile of cakes without upsetting them and if they succeeded it was believed that they would have a prosperous marriage(Floerke et …show more content…

Each pie contained a glass ring and they believed the lady who found the ring in her piece of pie would be the next to marry. The modern idea of a wedding cake wasn’t seen until the wedding of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany in 1882. This was the first record of a tiered and iced wedding cake that was fully edible with the use of dense frosting providing the support for the tiers. This practice carries over into the wedding cakes of today but often with the addition of wooden dowels inside the layers to offer additional support(Floerke et al.). Early modern style wedding cakes had white icing to not only showcase a family’s wealth since only the upper classes were typically able to afford pure white sugars at the time but because the color white symbolized virginity and purity and the cake was seen as a representation of the bride. Originally it was the bride’s duty to cut and distribute the cake because it was believed she would impart some of her good fortune into the pieces. As the cakes became larger and more elaborate and the number of wedding guests rose however, the groom was called upon to assist her with this task and so evolved the modern tradition of the bride and groom cutting the cake together and sharing a piece before the rest is distributed to the guests(Floerke et

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