What jumping the broom symbolizes?
Jumping over the broom symbolized wedded love defying evil and witchcraft. The practice may also be related to a British version of carrying the bride over the threshold. For that tradition, in some British communities, brooms were placed at the entrance of the room the bride and groom would go into.
How did slaves get married?
Within African American communities, couples who entered into unions were considered to be married. Marriages could be established as simply getting the slaveholders permission and sharing a cabin. If they shared vows, the wording had to be modified.
What does jumping the broom mean in a black wedding?
Brooms were (are) waved over the heads of marrying couples to ward off spirits. The couple would often but not always jump over the broom at the end of the ceremony. Jumping over the broom symbolized the wife’s commitment or willingness to clean the courtyard of the new home she had joined.
What culture is jumping the broom?
Jumping the broom was not a custom of slavery, but is a part of African culture that survived American slavery like the Voodoo religion of the Fon and Ewe ethnic groups or the ring shout ceremony of the BaKongo and Mbundu ethnic groups.
What does Jumping the Broom mean in a black wedding?
What is the history of jumping the broom?
While reports vary, some sources date jumping the broom to the early 1600s in Ghana , Africa. It’s believed by some that handmade brooms were thought to hold spiritual properties. The use of a handmade broom symbolized sweeping away past wrongs and it also warded off evil spirits.
What is the ceremony for jumping the broom?
Jumping the broom (or jumping the besom) is a phrase and custom relating to a wedding ceremony where the couple jumps over a broom. It has been suggested that the custom is based on an 18th-century idiomatic expression for “sham marriage”, “marriage of doubtful validity”; it was popularized in the context…
What is the symbolism of jumping the broom?
Jumping the broom is a time-honored wedding tradition in which the bride and groom jump over a broom during the ceremony. The act symbolizes a new beginning and a sweeping away of the past, and can also signify the joining of two families or offer a respectful nod to family ancestors.
How does the jumping the broom ceremony work?
The “Jumping the Broom” is a ceremony in which the bride and groom, signify their entrance into a new life and their creation of a new family by symbolically “sweeping away” their former single lives, former problems and concerns, and jumping over the broom to enter upon a new adventure as a married couple.