Scottish Wedding Traditions

 Scottish Wedding Rings

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Traditional Scottish gold wedding bands date back to the 1500's, and are still popular wedding ringstoday, as are Celtic knotwork engagement and wedding rings.

Traditions in Scotland Before the Wedding Ceremony

Often, before a Scottish bride is married, her mother holds an open house for a traditional "show ofpresents." Invitations are sent to those who gave wedding gifts to the couple and the wedding giftsare unwrapped and set out for viewing. After the show of presents the bride-to-be is often dressedup and her friends escort her through her town, singing and banging pots and pans, heralding thebride's wedding day.

The groom, meanwhile, is taken out for a stag night on one of the evenings preceding the wedding.The “Stag Night” is meant to be a celebration of the last night of "freedom", and a way ofreassuring friends that being married doesn't mean that they are shut out of your life. The groom,like the bride, is dressed up and taken around town by his friends and workmates. There is often agreat deal of harmless practical joking, of which the poor groom is the main target. When the nightwinds down, the groom is sometimes stripped of his clothes and covered in soot, treacle andfeathers and left overnight tied to a tree or post. In some rural areas an open lorry is hired and thegroom is paraded through his local area with much noise and celebration.

Something Old

A gift from mother to daughter to start her off for married life, and symbolising the passing on a bitof mother's wisdom.

Something New

A gift symbolising the new start married life represents. Something borrowed

The idea here is that something is borrowed from a happily married couple in the hope that a littleof their martial bliss will rub off on the newlyweds.

Something blue

There are two likely sources for this. Roman women used to border their robes with blue as a signof modesty, love, and fidelity. Also blue is the colour normally associated with Mary the mother ofJesus who is often used to symbolise steadfast love, purity, and sincerity.

Scottish Wedding Traditions and Ideas

Give a Scottish brooch (called Luckenbooth) as a token of your love or as a betrothal gift. This isusually made of silver and is engraved with two hearts entwined. Some couples pin this on theblanket of their first born for good luck.

Weddings and receptions are sometime held at a Scottish castle if there is a suitable one nearby. Forsomething simpler and less expensive the village hall, an outdoor venue or, for an even moretraditional option, the ceremony can be in the house.

Arrange a “Penny Wedding,” in which guests are expected to bring their own food and drinks to thechurch to celebrate after the ceremony is over.

Rent or buy a kilt for the groom to wear that represents his clan.

Exchange rings with Celtic knotwork designs instead of plain gold wedding bands. Men wearingwedding rings is more common today than in the past.The reason for wearing the rings on the thirdfinger is down to the Romans again. They believed that the vein on this finger ran directly to theheart, and so a symbol of your wedding pledge was thought to be bound to love and life itself.

Hire a bagpiper to play during the wedding party’s entrance and departure.Arrange for a ceilidh band for Highland dancing at your reception.
Select Scottish music for the ceremony and celebrations afterwards.

A new tradition which is becoming popular amongst today's couples is to plant a tree in memory of their wedding.

Old Scottish Wedding Traditions

Wedding customs have changed dramatically over the years. Some parts of weddings seem steepedin tradition whilst you will be glad to hear of some customs which have died out over the years!

On Barra, it was traditional to sprinkle water on the marriage bed and bless it. In Mull, it wascustomary that the young couple sleep in a barn for their first night and in Lewis they lived for aweek with the bride's parents before going to their own home.

Celtic practices were part of ceremonies for many hundreds of years and had roots in pagan rituals.Tying the knot originated from the bride and groom ripping their wedding plaids (clan tartans) andtying the two strips together as a symbol of the unity of the two families.

According to Gaelic tradition it is unlucky to marry in the month of May or during a waning moon.

In Aberdeenshire even now the 'blackening' is a ritual performed with great relish. The engagedcouple are captured one night by so called 'friends' and covered with foul substances such as treacle,feathers, soot etc and then paraded around the village and usually the pubs. It takes days to washclean!

Tradition says sew a hair onto the hem of a wedding dress for luck, or let a drop of blood fall ontoan inner seam. The bride must never try on a complicated dress in advance of her wedding day. Tofacilitate this tradition a small section of the hem is left unsewn by the dressmaker until the lastmoment.

The bride, when she leaves home for the last time as a single girl, should step out of the house withher right foot for luck

Penny Bridal or Silver Bridal

These festivities, also known as Penny Weddings, were renowned for feasting, drinking, dancingand fighting and were enjoyed by all except the clergy - who disapproved of such raucousbehaviour. Gifts were made to the newly weds towards the cost of the wedding feast and thecelebrations started on the eve of the wedding with singing, toasts and the ceremony of ‘feetwashing’.

Feet washing

A tub of water was placed in the best room, in which the bride placed her feet, her female friendsthen gathered around to help wash them. A wedding ring from a happily married woman waspreviously placed in the tub and it was believed that whoever found the ring would be the next toget married.

The men folk were outside the door making jokes and attempting to watch through the doorway.The bridegroom was then seized by the women and made to sit at the tub. His legs were none toogently daubed with soot, ashes and cinders - quite a painful procedure!

The Wedding Procession

The following day the bridal party made their way to the church, flower petals being thrown in frontof the bride, but if they encountered a funeral or a pig on the way, it was considered bad luck andthey would return home and set out again. The first person they encountered was called the firstfoot and would be given a coin and a drink of whisky by the bride. He would then have toaccompany the bridal party for one mile before being allowed to continue on his way.

The Highland custom of Creeling the bridegroom

A large basket or ‘creel’, was filled with stones and tied to the bridegroom’s back. He then had tocarry it around the entire town unless his bride agreed to kiss him. Only if she did, would his friendsallow him to escape from the ‘creeling’ otherwise he had to continue until he had completed thecircuit of the town.

Handfasting

In the eighteenth century the custom of handfasting was observed. A couple would live together fora year and a day, at which time they could decide whether to part or make a lifelong commitment. Itwas considered more important for the bride to be experienced and fertile than to be a virgin.

Wedding Traditions Still in Use in Scotlandand the UK

Carrying the bride over the threshold:

This was done to protect the bride from any evil spirits which may be hiding beneath the threshold.The groom would carry his beautiful bride to safety and happiness so they could start their newlives together.

Honeymoon:

This was a chance for the new couple to hide from family and friends for a period of time.

Tying shoes to the bumper of the car:

This represents the symbolism and power of shoes in ancient times. Egyptians would exchange sandalswhen they exchanged goods, so when the father of the bride gave his daughter to the groom, hewould also give the brides sandals to show that she now belonged to the groom. In Anglo-Saxontimes, the groom would tap the heel of the bride's shoe to show his authority over her. In later times,people would throw shoes at the couple. Now folks just tie shoes to the couple's car, or as in this case a fishing net and buoys.

The taking of each others right hand:

The open right hand is a symbol of strength, resource and purpose. The coming together of bothright hands is a symbol that both the bride and the groom can depend on each other and theresources that each brings to the marriage. It also represents the merger of their lives together intoone.

Tie the knot:

This wonderful expression originated from Roman times when the bride wore a girdle that wastied in knots which the groom had the fun of untying. As a side note, this phrase can also refer to thetying of the knot in handfasting ceremonies, which were often performed without the benefit of aclergy.

Veil:

 

Originated with arranged marriages. In these, the groom's family informed him that he was tomarry, but they very rarely let him see the bride. After all, if the groom didn't like the bride's looks,he might not agree to the marriage. With this in mind, the father of the bride gave the bride away tothe groom who then lifted the veil to see his wife of all eternity for the first time.

Wedding cake:

                                                            

Like most rituals handed down through the ages, a wedding wouldn't be complete withoutfertility symbols, like the wedding cake. Ancient Romans would bake a cake made of wheat orbarley and break it over the bride's head as a symbol of her fertility. Over time, it became traditionalto stack several cakes on top of one another. The bride and groom would then be charged to kissover this tower without knocking it over. If they were successful, a lifetime of good fortune wascertain for the new couple. Finally, during the reign of King Charles II of England, it becamecustomary for such a cake to be iced with sugar.

Leap year proposals:

The right of every women to propose on 29th February each leap year, goes back many hundredsof years to when the leap year day had no recognition in English law (the day was 'leapt over' andignored, hence the term 'leap year'). It was considered, therefore, that as the day had no legal status,it was reasonable to assume that traditions also had no status. Consequently, women who wereconcerned about being 'left on the shelf' took advantage of this anomaly and proposed to the manthey wished to marry.

It was also thought that since the leap year day corrected the discrepancy between the calendar yearof 365 days and the time taken for the Earth to complete one orbit of the sun (365 days and 6hours), it was an opportunity for women to correct a tradition that was one-sided and unjust.

For those wishing to take advantage of this ancient tradition, you will have to wait until February29th 2008!

Throwing Confetti:

Throwing confetti over newly weds originated from the ancient pagan rite of showering thehappy couple with grain to wish upon them a 'fruitful' union. Pagans believed that the fertility ofthe seeds would be transferred to the couple on whom they fell. The throwing of rice has the samesymbolic meaning.

The word confetti has the same root as the word confectionery in Italian and was used to describe'sweetmeats' that is, grain and nuts coated in sugar that were thrown over newly weds for the samepagan reason. In recent years, small pieces of colored paper have replaced sweetmeats, grain andnuts as an inexpensive substitute but the use of the word confetti has remained.

Carrying A Bride Over The Threshold:

The Romans believed that it was unlucky if the bride tripped on entering the house for the first time.So they arranged for several members of the bridal party to carry her over the threashold. Nowadaysthe groom is expected to do the job himself :-)

Grey Horses:

All the best bridal carriages used to be pulled by grey horses and it is still considered good luck tosee a grey horse on the way to the church.

Lucky Horse Shoes:

Horseshoes have always been lucky. There is a nice story about the devil asking a blacksmith toshoe his single hoof. When the blacksmith recognised his customer he carried out the job aspainfully as possible until the devil roared for mercy. He was released on condition that he wouldnever enter a place where a horseshoe was displayed. A horse shoe carried by the bride isconsidered a symbol of fertility.

Wedding Bells:

A peal of bells as the bridal couple leave the church is one of the oldest traditions. Before the daysof widespread literacy and newspapers this was how the local people knew a wedding had takenplace. The sound of bells was also said to drive out evil spirits.

Lucky Chimney Sweep:

Brides still consider it fortunate if they pass a chimney-sweep on the way to the wedding as the oldfashioned soot-covered sweep had magical associations with the family and hearth - the heart of thehome.

Bad luck omen:

It is bad luck for the bride to look in the mirror wearing her complete outfit before her wedding day- old beliefs say that part of yourself goes into the reflection and therefore, the bride would not begiving all of herself to her new husband.