The
Wedding Cake
Cakes have
been part of the marriage ceremony throughout history, and
represent the fertility of wheat and good luck for the couple.
Serving
cake to the guests represents the spreading of good luck to them.
|
|
The history of the wedding
cake began in ancient Rome. The
Romans broke bread over the bride's head as a fertility symbol.
Guests gathered up the crumbs and ate them. This
custom
continued until the start of the 17th century when in England many
small cakes were made which were arranged in a mound on top of each
other. These were not sweet cakes like the present day, but flat cakes
made of flour, water and salt.
Other cakes in England
were also flat
and round, but included the addition of fruit and nuts which
symbolized fertility. The couple had to kiss on the mound of
cakes. The cakes almost always crumbled, which is the reason
why
the idea of multiple small cakes was replaced by one giant cake by the
middle of the 17th century.
In Yorkshire a cake on a
plate would
be thrown out of a window. If the plate broke, the bride
would
enjoy a happy future with her husband, but if it remained intact the
future would be bleak.
Another old English
custom, which has grown over time, is to place a
ring inside the wedding cake. The guest who finds it in his slice
is
assured of happiness throughout the year ahead. Part of the
top layer
of the wedding cake is usually kept for the baptism of the first child.
|
This idea has extended
through history to to the present day, where wedding cakes have
several layers. The wedding cake usually enters the room to
the
sound of the Wedding March. Next the bride and groom
take a knife
together and make a symbolic cut.
The Wedding March Music
The
wedding march is the music which opens and closes the religious
ceremony. It is a tradition which comes from
the wedding of princess Victoria of
England with prince Frederick William of Prussia. Princess Victoria
herself chose two classical pieces for her wedding march music: Mendelssohn's
Wedding March
of for
the entry to the church and the Wagner's Lohengrin Opera
for her
exit out of the church in the hands of her husband.
|
|
