Traditions
This traditional rhyme asks a bride to carry four things: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something this color.
What is blue?
In traditional Japanese weddings, the bride and groom may participate in a ceremony involving the sharing of this alcoholic beverage.
What is sake?
According to an old English superstition, seeing this eight-legged creature on the way to your wedding was considered lucky.
What is a spider?
This famous queen's 1840 wedding helped popularize the white wedding dress in Western culture.
Who is Queen Victoria?
Wedding desserts were originally associated with this food rather than the elaborate multi-tiered cakes we know today.
What is bread?
In many Western ceremonies, the groom traditionally stands on the bride's right side so that this hand remains free.
What is the right hand?
In this country, wedding guests may smash plates as part of a celebration for the newlyweds.
What is Germany?
According to an old superstition, rain on your wedding day is generally considered this?
What is good luck?
Before white became fashionable in the West, this color was particularly common among European brides.
What is red?
In some Victorian-era wedding traditions, guests could find these hidden inside wedding cakes, with the person who found one supposedly receiving good fortune.
What are charms?
Breaking this object at a Jewish wedding is commonly associated with both the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the fragility of life.
What is a glass?
In this country, the groom's friends or relatives may steal his shoes and demand money for their return.
What is India?
According to an old superstition, what does it supposedly mean if the bride or groom cries during the wedding ceremony?
What is a long and happy marriage?
This ancient Roman goddess was associated with marriage and childbirth.
Who is Juno?
This ancient tradition involved breaking a cake or wheat-based food over the bride's head as a symbol of fertility and prosperity in this civilization.
What is Rome?
The phrase “tying the knot” is thought to refer to this ancient wedding ritual in which a couple's hands were physically bound together.
What is handfasting?
At traditional Hungarian weddings, guests may participate in the “bride's dance,” during which they do this in exchange for a brief dance with the bride.
What is place money in a bowl?
Bridesmaids historically sometimes dressed similarly to the bride because it was believed to confuse these supernatural beings.
What are evil spirits?
Which ancient civilization is credited with creating some of the earliest known written marriage contracts?
What is Ancient Mesopotamia?
This famous 1981 wedding between a British royal and Lady Diana Spencer became one of the most-watched televised weddings in history.
Who is Prince Charles?
The word “honeymoon” is thought to be connected to an old tradition in which newlyweds consumed this sweet alcoholic drink during their first month of marriage.
What is mead?
In this country, a pre-wedding tradition called “blackening” involves covering the bride and groom in substances such as mud, flour, food, or other unpleasant materials.
What is Scotland?
According to an old superstition, a bride who drops this object during the wedding ceremony may be inviting bad luck.
What is the wedding ring?
What famous document, signed in 1215, helped establish the legal principle that a widow should have rights to her husband's property and marriage dowry?
What is the Magna Carta?
In Victorian England, what did unmarried women sometimes place beneath their pillows on the night of a wedding in hopes of dreaming about their future husbands?
What is a piece of cake?