BRIDE

A 'bride' is a female participant in a wedding ceremony: a woman about to be married, currently being married, or, in some uses, very recently married. The term used to mean 'daughter-in-law', as newly married women at one time moved into the husband's family home. Further back, the word possibly comes from the Teutonic word for 'cook'.^[1] A bride is typically attended by one or more bridesmaids or maids of honor. Her partner, if male, is the bridegroom or "groom", after the wedding, in marriage, her husband. The term is applicable during the first year of wifehood.

Contents

Legal requirements

Attire

History

Images of brides from around the world

Images of brides in history

References

See also

Legal requirements

Before a bride can be formally called ''wife'' or (if the bride is not marrying a man of higher rank than "Mr.") Mrs. (maybe taking the surname of her spouse), she must finish the formal (legal) wedding procedure. In some cultures, successful sexual intercourse between the bride and bridegroom is a required step to complete (or consummate) the wedding ceremony.

Attire

In Europe and North America, the typical attire for a bride is a formal dress and sometimes a tiara. For first marriages, a white wedding dress is a tradition started by Queen Victoria's wedding. Etiquette prescribes that a white dress may not be worn for subsequent marriages (regarded by some as a symbol of virginity, also regarded as a symbol that the bride is happy), but this guideline is often ignored with brides wearing white dresses for any number of marriages. In addition to the gown, the bride normally also wears a veil and carries a bouquet of flowers. In some areas, a garter may be worn to be removed by the groom at a later time after the ceremony.

History

The term appears in combination with many words, some of them obsolete. Thus "bridegroom" is the newly married man, and "bride-bell," "bride-banquet" are old equivalents of wedding-bells, wedding-breakfast. "Bridal" (from ''Bride-ale''), originally the wedding-feast itself, has grown into a general descriptive adjective, e.g. the ''bridal'' party, the ''bridal'' ceremony. The ''bride-cake'' had its origin in the Roman ''confarreatio'', a form of marriage, the essential features of which were the eating by the couple of a cake made of salt, water and spelt flour, and the holding by the bride of three wheat-ears, symbolical of plenty.
Under Tiberius the cake-eating fell into disuse, but the wheat ears survived. In the middle ages they were either worn or carried by the bride. Eventually it became the custom for the young girls to assemble outside the church porch and throw grains of wheat over the bride, and afterwards a scramble for the grains took place. In time the wheat-grains came to be cooked into thin dry biscuits, which were broken over the bride's head, as is the custom in Scotland to-day, an oatmeal cake being used. In Elizabeth's reign these biscuits began to take the form of small rectangular cakes made of eggs, milk, sugar, currants and spices. Every wedding guest had one at least, and the whole collection were thrown at the bride the instant she crossed the threshold. Those which lighted on her head or shoulders were most prized by the scramblers. At last these cakes became amalgamated into a large one which took on its full glories of almond paste and ornaments during Charles II.'s time. But even to-day in rural parishes, e.g. north Notts, wheat is thrown over the bridal couple with the cry "Bread for life and pudding for ever," expressive of a wish that the newly wed may be always affluent. The throwing of rice, a very ancient custom but one later than the wheat, is symbolical of the wish that the bridal may be fruitful.
The ''bride-cup'' was the bowl or loving-cup in which the bridegroom pledged the bride, and she him. The custom of breaking this wine-cup, after the bridal couple had drained its contents, is common to both the Jews and the members of the Greek Church. The former dash it against the wall or on the ground, the latter tread it under foot. The phrase "bride-cup" was also sometimes used of the bowl of spiced wine prepared at night for the bridal couple. ''Bride-favours'', anciently called bride-lace, were at first pieces of gold, silk or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly worn at weddings. These took later the form of bunches of ribbons, which were at last metamorphosed into rosettes.
''Bridegroom-men'' and ''bridesmaids'' had formerly important duties. The men were called bride-knights, and represented a survival of the primitive days of marriage by capture, when a man called his friends in to assist to "lift" the bride. Bridesmaids were usual in Saxon England. The senior of them had personally to attend the bride for some days before the wedding. The making of the bridal wreath, the decoration of the tables for the wedding feast, the dressing of the bride, were among her special tasks. In the same way the senior groomsman (the ''best man'') was the personal attendant of the husband.
The ''bride-wain'', the wagon in which the bride was driven to her new home, gave its name to the weddings of any poor deserving couple, who drove a "wain" round the village, collecting small sums of money or articles of furniture towards their housekeeping. These were called bidding-weddings, or bid-ales, which were in the nature of "benefit" feasts. So general is still the custom of "bidding-weddings" in Wales, that printers usually keep the form of invitation in type. Sometimes as many as six hundred couples will walk in the bridal procession.
The ''bride's wreath'' is a Christian substitute for the gilt coronet all Jewish brides wore. The crowning of the bride is still observed by the Russians, and the Calvinists of Holland and Switzerland. The wearing of orange blossoms is said to have started with the Saracens, who regarded them as emblems of fecundity. It was introduced into Europe by the Crusaders. The ''bride's veil'' is the modern form of the ''flammeum'' or large yellow veil which completely enveloped the Greek and Roman brides during the ceremony. Such a covering is still in use among the Jews and the Persians.^[2][3]

Images of brides from around the world

Images of brides in history

References

1. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=bride&searchmode=none
2. Brand, ''Antiquities of Great Britain'' (Hazlitt's ed., 1905)
3. Rev J. Edward Vaux, ''Church Folklore'' (1894)

See also

★ Maid of honor

★ Bridesmaid

★ Flowergirl

★ Page Boy

★ Bridegroom

★ Best man

★ Groomsman

★ Ringbearer

★ Wedding dress