Renaissance Wedding Ceremonies
Renaissance bridal customs originated during the Middle Ages. Wedding customs and fashions developed as increased foreign trade brought new ideas to Europe from far away places.
Renaissance marriages were often held at the bride's house. Couples belonging to the nobility would have their weddings in medieval castles.
During the later Middle Ages, the Catholic Church dominated culture and as a consequence, Renaissance wedding ceremonies were most likely to take place in a chapel or at the church door.
Renaissance marriage ceremonies and celebrations depended largely on the social class of the bride and groom. Inheritance and property rights were usually two reasons why marriages were often arranged. Agreements or contracts were drawn up describing the rights of both the bride and groom.
Often a title of nobility together with land ownership was conveyed with the wedding.
Marriage Customs
Grooms, on the average, were 14 years older than their brides. Noble women sometimes didn't marry until the age of 24, but this was rare. More than 3/4 were married before they reached 19. By today's standards, western Europe was inhabited by the young, with more than half of the population under 20 years of age.
The Betrothal During the Renaissance
This ceremony brought the prospective bride and groom in front of a priest to make solemn promises. After rings and kisses were exchanged, the couple would wait for a period of roughly 40 days before the actual wedding ceremony took place. Marriages were not allowed to to be performed during certain times of the year such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.
Grooms had to pay a "deposit" at the time of the betrothal, and if he tried to back out of the agreement it would cost him four times that price. Husbands usually promised one-third to one-half of their estate on his bride to ensure her livelihood in case they passed away.
Wedding Ceremonies for Nobles and Peasants
For noble classes arranged marriages would be decided when the future bride and groom were very young, often when they were 10 or 11 years old. The wedding day, held 5 to 6 years later would be their first meeting. Love was rarely and issue as marriage meant sharing a lord's property or a noble name. The most important goal of marriage between nobles was continued success and the acquisition of wealth.
Minstrels, jugglers and other entertainers would add to the wedding day's celebration with. The manor's inhabitants would attend along with other nobles and the families' distant relatives. The castle lord might mark the occasion by freeing prisoners, and after the feast beggars would gather at the gates to receive leftover food.
Just as with the higher classes, marriage among the poor were also matters of business. Arranged marriages were common, but many weddings among lower classes were often the result of pregnancy. Betrothal ceremonies would take place at the house of the bride and the village would gather to celebrate the day, and perhaps give the couple gifts of wooden utensils or other tools.
After "robbing" local village men of a possible wife, tradition dictated that grooms would buy a round of drinks for the denied suitors. These men, in return, would often organize a mock serenades.
Here is a collection of various Italian wedding
customs and traditions:
This lengthy celebration may begin with a mass in the morning, and the dancing and feasting after the wedding ceremony may continue well into the early morning hours of the next day. An Italian wedding could last the entire day, night and next morning.
The Engagement
- Long ago, Italian marriages were arranged by the families of the bride and groom. Often, the brother or another male relative of the groom went to the father or uncle of the young woman to ask for her hand in marriage. In some cases, a matchmaker sent a message masciata to the prospective bride's family of the man's intent to marry the bride. Once the two families were in accord, the couple's official engagement was announced.
- If the groom proposes directly to the bride, he usually serenades her first, and either plays an instrument or shows up with his musically-talented friends.
- Diamond engagement rings were given by medieval Italians in the belief that the diamond was created by the flames of love. Precious stones were used by medieval Italians as part of the groom's payment for his bride. The payment, like engagement rings today, symbolized the groom's intent to marry.
- In preparation for the wedding, the bride assembled a bundle (dote), consisting of household items, linens, her clothing, and sometimes even her future husband's clothes, to bring to the home of the groom. Her family provided her with a dowry consisting of monetary, and possibly domestic goods.
- Wearing of green by the bride the night before the wedding brings luck and abundance to the couple.
The Wedding
- On the day of the wedding, the bride is not supposed to wear any gold, until after her wedding ring is slipped out. Wearing gold during or before the wedding is thought to bring bad luck.
- Sunday marriages (with the exception of the months mentioned above) are believed to be luckiest .
- In the Veneto region of Italy, the groom walks to the bride's house and, together, he walks with the bride and the whole wedding party to church. On the way , town residents would watch the group walk by and present the bride with many challenges. For example, they put a broom on the ground and if she bride noticed it and picked it up to put it away she was considered a good housekeeper. Then, she might come across a crying child, the couple is supposed to quiet him and make him smile, this would mean that they will be good parents. Coming across a beggar, means giving generously and is equaled to having a good heart.
- The bride arrives to the wedding mass last. In the meantime, the groom waits in front of the church as his best men tease him about the bride, "Did you tell her that you're getting married today?" and "I don't think she'll come"! Her lateness, depending on the number of minutes, would have a different meaning to the groom.
- Folklore called for the groom to carry a piece of iron in his pocket (Toc Ferro) on his wedding day to ward off the evil eye (mal'occhio) since his happy situation might provoke envy, and invite supernatural danger.
- The bride wore a bridal veil to conceal her from malignant spirits, yet tearing the veil was considered good luck.
- In Southern regions of Italy, the couple shattered a vase or glass into many pieces at the end of the wedding day. The number of pieces represented the number of years they'd be happily married to one another.
- The candy-covered almonds, bomboniera (confetti) tied in mesh bags to toss at the couple is based on a tradition to avoid childlessness. In the past, instead of wedding cake, ornamental bags or boxes were filled with the sugared almonds and sent to friends and guests to signify the matrimony or the "union of bitter and sweet." The number of confetti was, and continues to be, very important; it should be an odd number preferably 5 or 7-- each a good-luck number.