This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 1:51 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The tradition of tying shoes to the back of the the couple’s car originated in Tudor times. It is believed that in those days the wedding guests would throw shoes at the newlyweds. In the event that the couple or their transportation was hit by a shoe, it meant good luck. It is believed that in Anglo Saxon times, the groom would establish his authority by symbolically hitting his bride with a shoe. In response, brides would then throw a shoe to the bridesmaids to determine who would be next in line to marry. This is similar to the wedding garter that is thrown by the groom to his groomsmen to determine who would be next in line to marry a wife.
The act of throwing old shoes after the bride symbolizes that authority has been transferred from her father to her new husband. A variation of this event is for the bride’s father to throw her shoe after the groom as a symbol of his surrender of his prized daughter. The tradition of the old shoe and that of the wedding garter seem to share common threads.
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