Weddings abound with rich, and sometimes odd, traditions. One of the oddest is the notion that grooms should carry brides over the threshold.
According to the book “Marriage Customs of the World,” the tradition hearkens back the 7th century B.C. when ancient Rome was founded by Romulus. The city needed to grow their population, and surrounding regions refused to let their women marry Romans. So, legend has it, the Romans raided the land of Sabine of their women and carried them back to Rome and across their threshold where they deflowered the virgin maids and made them their brides.
Hmmm.
The book goes on to suggest a more playful meaning for the tradition of why grooms carry brides over the threshold. It also represents a coy bride-to-be’s reticence to leave her parents and enter in into marital union with her husband. Thus the need for the man to ‘carry her off!’
The English had their own superstition in centuries past: they feared the threshold itself might be imbued with ‘sorcerous drugs’ which could destroy the virgin’s fertility if it touched her, thus the need for the husband to carry his bride over the threshold.
Whatever. Practically speaking, you might want to think twice about embracing this tradition. Why risk throwing a back out … or dropping the bride on your honeymoon night?!
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