Globally, different cultures and religious groups observe distinctive wedding customs. One such enthralling custom involves giving a horseshoe to the bride. A horseshoe, a metallic object in the shape of a “u” that's attached to horse hooves to improve their movement, represents endless luck. The tradition of presenting horseshoes to the bride on her wedding day has been a beloved practice across many generations. Keep reading the article to learn more about who gives the horseshoe to the bride.
This tradition is very famous in Scotland, England, Denmark, and Estonia. People believe that giving a horseshoe to a new bride will bring joy and happiness to the new couple's life. At weddings, people gift silver or gold horseshoes instead of metal ones.
History of Horseshoe
Horseshoes have a great history in Scotland's brides carrying it for good luck. In some areas, brides used to sew the horseshoe in their wedding dresses. Horseshoes and blacksmiths have an unbreakable bonding. This lucky charm became famous when eloping couples of England came to Scotland for advantage. In England, you could not marry someone until 21 so couples used to elope from England and enter Scotland and get married by so-called “blacksmith priests”and they used to give it as a lucky charm.
Why Should You Give a Horseshoe?
Giving horseshoe to a new bride is simply telling them to stay happy and wish good luck for their new chapter. As it carries the tradition it will make new couples' special days memorable and they will remember you for this great gift. Horseshoe is considered really romantic and if you can make it a bit fancy it will just rock everyone's mind. You can buy a ready-made horseshoe but if you can give them a homemade one it will stay closer to their heart. Or just buy a wedding horseshoe and decorate it a bit, like add a ribbon, fancy flowers, etc.
Who Gives Horseshoe to The Bride?
One of the most confusing things is who should give the horseshoe to the bride. Normally children at the end of the ceremony when both are announced as Mr. and Mrs. After taking their first walk together children with adults help hand the lucky charm known as a horseshoe to the bride. People love taking photos of this moment and keep it with them for the rest of their life as it is a great memory. In wedding photos, they keep their horseshoe and flowers with them which they admire dearly. This is how normally a horseshoe is given
Other Famous Scottish Wedding Traditions
There are various wedding traditions around the world going on for centuries. Here we will be talking about best out of best Scottish wedding traditions. So keep up to know more about it.
Wedding Scramble
A wedding scramble is a very famous and enjoyable event in a wedding. In this tradition as the bride steps into the car, her father throws a handful of coins and the children collect them. It is believed that throwing those coins will bring financial luck in a new couple's life.
White Heather
The White heather is connected to the success in battle in 1544 Clan Ranald gained a victory to the fact they wore white heather in their bonnets, and Cluny of Clan MacPherson attributed his escape after Culloden to the fact that searchers did not find him because he slept on a patch of white heather so he was overlooked.
So people of scotia borders believed that placing a sprig of white heather within the bride’s bouquet would bring luck and happiness in her married life.
Creeling the Bridegroom
This tradition is a bit hard but also soothing. In this tradition, the groom had to carry a big bucket called creeling filled with heavy stones and roam around the village. Then her bride would come and kiss him at the end of this event. Which symbolizes that she will be with him no matter what hardship he is going through.
Luckenbooth Brooch
Luckenbooth brooch is jewelry that is considered a love token in Scottish tradition.it is often made of silver and sometimes engraved with jewels and two hearts intertwined with a crown on top. The couple would give it to each other after the engagement as a symbol of keeping the promise of marrying each other. After the wedding, they pin it to their first child's blanket for good luck.
The Speerin
Spearin is a hard task to do. Where grooms have to do difficult tasks to impress their father-in-law before gaining their permission. If they are not impressed the marriage won't take place so grooms have to work very hard for this.
The Lang Reel
This is a special dance which comes from north-east Scotland. Everyone dances until the only couple left are the bride and groom, who have the last dance. It symbolizes that the couple should be the one who lasts their relationship till the last breath.
The Clock Gift
One of the most traditional Scottish gifts is the clock. The best man normally hands over the clock to the new couple. It is believed that their life will last longer.
The Wedding Sark
This is basically exchanging gifts between two families. And it is normally bridal dress and groom's clothes. The bride would buy the groom's wedding dress and the groom would buy the bride's wedding dress.
Conclusion
These were all interesting facts and information we had about horseshoe and Scottish weddings. In this article, we talked about the history of horseshoes and how they became so famous. Also, we talked about how you can make your horseshoe gift more attractive. Now it totally depends on you how you are going to do it. Other than that we told you about other Scottish marriage traditions where you can find varieties and choose an event for your marriage ceremony.
We hope that our article was helpful and interesting to you. Especially, we hope you will be able to know about the who gives horseshoe to the bride after reading the article.
