A Collection of Wedding Origins, and Traditions      America is a melting pot, and so are American wedding traditions. Some wedding traditions started so long ago, the some origins are not clear. Many traditions symbolize one thing in one country; yet still another meaning in a different country. A good luck symbol may not be such a good luck symbol in another country or era. Please email your origins of wedding traditions, or good luck symbols. You may have a new wedding tradition of your own to start. The Bridal Shower: Today's brides-to-be have a young 17th century Dutch maiden to thank for their bridal showers. The girl had fallen in love with a Miller, who could not afford to marry because of his practice of giving flour away to the indigent, left him without sufficient means. Neighbors and friends took pity on the good- hearted couple and conspired to "shower" her with gifts of house hold goods and furnishings, so that her father would consent to the marriage.        The Ring Finger: The husband placed a ring on the third finger of his wife's left hand, as it was believed that a vein in this finger ran straight to the heart. Diamond: Only the bride received a wedding ring during the middle Ages. Medieval Italians were the first to favor the diamond for the jewel of choice in engagement and wedding rings, as they believed that diamonds were created from the flames of love. Flower Girls and Ring Bearers: Young girls carrying wheat preceded the bride in her wedding procession, and precursors to today's flower girls and young boys dressed as pages added symmetry to the wedding party.      Wedding Party: The bride's attendants were not added to the wedding ceremony merely to cavort and squeal to the delight of sedate, married wedding guests. Rather, their participation began as an ominous pledge. Before the 11th century, prospective grooms commonly captured young women - with enlisted assistance of the marauding friends - to be their future wives. The bride, for protection against the advancing hoard, would encircle herself with her "bride's maids," who dressed the same as the bride in order to confuse the rampaging groom and his cronies. Eventually, these "attendants" became the members of the wedding party.         Wedding Cake and Cake Cutting Ceremony: The wedding cake has its origins in ancient Greece, where piles of small, hard biscuits were served at wedding feasts. The biscuits were seasoned with sesame and sweetened with honey to represent marital life's sweetness and bitterness. To pass the fertility of the harvest along to the bride, guests would crumble little pieces of the biscuit over her head. In the middle Ages, bridesmaids would follow the bride to the wedding site carrying garlands of wheat and bride's cakes. In Medieval Rome, guests would not only break a loaf of wheat bread over the bride's head to impart fertility to the couple, but would also gobble up the crumbs to bring luck to themselves. Wedding guests hoping to share in the fruitfulness were urged to take home a small cake. When the English adopted the tradition, they gave it their own flair. Guests would bring small cakes to the wedding and pile them together, and the couple would kiss while standing over the pile. These cakes also were urged on departing guests as the forerunners of today's "groom's cakes." Though not very popular now, groom's cakes are a part of contemporary weddings in some cultures; pieces of heavy, dark fruitcake are placed in tiny white boxes and tied with ribbons for friends and family to take home with them after the wedding.     But a variation of the groom cake did find its way to some parts of Northern Scotland. A little cake baked on a griddle on the wedding day was held over the bride's head and broken as she entered her new abode as a married woman. The bride and groom then would eat the pieces to ensure a happy, successful marriage. French and English brides were typically the first to cut and eat the cake, as a bride's fertility would be "cut into " if anyone else cut the cake before her. And some brides passed small slices of wedding cake through a ring before eating it, joining together the symbols of marriage and fertility. The contemporary tiered wedding cake arose as a practical consideration. It seems that in the 1660's, a French chef visiting London observed the difficulty of carrying all the little cakes without having them fall over, so he iced them together with a white sugar frosting to make them stick together when stacked!     Bouquet: Anther legend on the origins of tossing the bouquet dates back to the Romans when custom decreed that the first fire in a couple's new house be lit by a torch, which was then thrown out of the house to the waiting crowd of wedding attendants. Since the torch was still on fire, this tradition caused many singed hairs and flaming togas. But by the 14th century in France, the flower bouquet replaced the flaming torch. With no flame, the tradition lost some of its nervous energy, and the superstition developed that the bridal attendant who caught the bouquet would marry next.   Garter: The tradition of proposing on one knee originates from when a knight would kneel before his lord prior to a tournament, waiting for a lady to toss him her ribbon or colors, indicating her favor. 14th century brides reenacted this behavior by throwing their garters to the male wedding guests. However, when guests got in the habit of removing the garter ahead of time, a bouquet of flowers was eventually substituted in lieu of the garter. No doubt this is the reason why now only one man, the newly married bridegroom, is allowed to remove the bride's garter. Rice: The first wedding confetti was grain thrown to ensure the bride's fruitfulness. Early Romans tossed seeds and nuts while the Greeks preferred nuts, dates and seed-bearing plants. The French traditionally tossed wheat over the bridal couple; Sicilians threw wheat, bread and salt, while the English tossed pieces of cake. In some parts of England, a slightly different custom arose to ensure the bride's fertility - a plate of salt was smashed over the groom's head. Today's tradition of rice throwing originated in the Orient where rice denoted fertility.     The Honeymoon: Honeyed Moon. Few know that the term honeymoon is a specific reference to mead, originating from a medieval English tradition that after any wedding ceremony, nuptial couples were given a month's supply of mead, enough for one full cycle of the moon. It was believed that by faithfully drinking mead for the first month the bride would "bear fruit" and a child would be born within the year. If, indeed the woman conceived, success was attributed to the skill of the mead maker. The ability to produce life was believed to be imparted through the indulgence of the gods of heaven: honey for their mead.