Wedding Customs around the World
Early African American: Jumping the Broom
In the times of slavery in this country, African American couples were not allowed to formally marry and live together. To make a public declaration of their love and commitment, a man and woman jumped over a broom into matrimony, to the beat of drums. (The broom has long held significant meaning for the various Africans, symbolizing, the start of home- making for the newlywed couple. In Southern Africa, the day after the wedding, the bride assisted the other women in the family in sweeping the courtyard, indicating her dutiful willing ness to help her in-laws with housework till the newlyweds could move to their new home.) Some African-American couples today are choosing to include this symbolic rite in their wedding ceremony.
早期非洲裔美國人：跳掃帚
在美國的黑奴時代，黑人男女是不允許正式結婚生活在壹起的。為了向世人宣布他們的愛情和婚約，壹對黑人男女和著鼓聲的節奏，壹起跳過壹把掃帚。（掃帚對各種非洲人長期來都具有很重要的意義，因為它意味著新婚夫婦組成家庭的開始。在南部非洲，新娘在婚後的第壹天要幫助夫家的其他女性清掃院子，以此表明在住進自己的新家前，她願意盡職地幫助丈夫的家人承擔家務勞動。）直至今日，壹些美國黑人還在他們的婚禮上舉行這種象征性的儀式。
Armenia: Two white doves may be released to signify love and happiness. The bride may dress in red silk and may wear cardboard wings with feathers on her head. Small coins may be thrown at her.
亞美尼亞：人們放飛兩只白鴿，以示愛情和幸福。新娘穿著紅色絲綢的服裝，頭戴飾有羽毛的紙翼。人們還可向新娘投擲硬幣。
Belgium: The bride may still embroider her name on her handkerchief, carry it on the wedding day, then frame it and keep it until the next family bride marries.
比利時：新娘可以將其姓名繡在手帕上，在婚禮舉行日隨身帶上它。婚禮後將手帕裝入鏡框保存，直到家裏的另外壹個姑娘結婚。
Bermuda: Islanders top their tiered wedding cakes with a tiny sapling. The newlyweds plant the tree at their home, where they can watch it grow, as their marriage grows.
百慕大：百慕大島民在他們的多層婚禮蛋糕的頂層插上壹株小樹苗，新婚夫婦要將這株樹苗種在家中，這樣他們可以目睹樹苗伴隨著他們的婚姻壹起長大。
Bohemia: The groom gives the bride a rosary, a prayer book, a girdle with three keys (to guard her virtue), a fur cap, and a silver wedding ring. The bride gives the groom a shirt sewn with gold thread blended with colored silks and a wedding ring. Before the ceremony, the groomsman wraps the groom in the bride's cloak to keep evil spirits from creeping in and dividing their two hearts.
波黑人：新郎向新娘贈送壹串念珠，壹本祈禱文，壹根上面串著三把鑰匙的腰帶（用以保護她的貞潔），壹頂毛皮帽，壹個銀的結婚戒指。新娘則向新郎贈送壹件用金線和彩色絲綢縫制的襯衣和結婚戒指。婚禮前，伴郎將新郎裹進新娘的鬥篷裏，以防惡魔侵入，拆散他們相愛的心。
Caribbean: A rich black cake baked with dried fruits and rum is especially popular on the islands of Barbados, Grenada and St. Lucia. The recipe, handed down from mother to daughter, is embellished by each. It is considered a "pound" cake--with the recipe calling for a pound each of flour, dark brown sugar, butter, glace cherries, raisins, prunes, currants, plus a dozen eggs and flavorings. The dried fruits are soaked in rum and kept in a crock anywhere from two weeks to six months.
加勒比地區：在巴巴多斯，格林納達和聖盧西亞，用幹果和朗姆酒制作的味道濃郁的蛋糕十分常見。蛋糕的制作方法，由母親親手傳給女兒，並且各自對其加以修飾。人們把這種蛋糕叫作“壹磅”蛋糕，因為制作這種蛋糕需要面粉、棕糖、黃油、糖霜櫻桃、葡萄幹、李子、紅醋栗各壹磅，加上壹打雞蛋和調味品。制作蛋糕的幹果要在朗姆酒中浸泡並在瓦罐中保存兩個星期至6個月。
Croatia: Married female relatives remove the bride's veil and replace it with a kerchief and apron, symbols of her new married status. She is then serenaded by all the married women. Following the wedding ceremony, those assembled walk three times around the well (symbolizing the Holy Trinity,) and throw apples into it (symbolizing fertility).
克羅地亞：由已婚的女性親戚摘下新娘的面紗，換上壹塊頭巾和壹條圍裙，意味著新娘的已婚新身份。然後由所有的已婚婦女為新娘唱小夜曲。婚禮之後，所有來賓圍繞著井走三圈（象征著聖三位壹體），並向井中扔蘋果（象征著生育）。
The Czech Republic: Friends would sneak into the bride's yard to plant a tree, then deco rate it with ribbons and painted eggshells. Legend said she would live as long as the tree. Brides in the countryside carry on the very old custom of wearing a wreath of rosemary, which symbolizes remembrance. The wreath is woven for each bride on her wedding eve by her friends as a wish for wisdom, love, and loyalty.
捷克***和國：朋友們溜進新娘的院子去種壹棵樹，然後再用彩帶和彩繪的蛋殼將樹加以裝飾。傳說新娘將與這樹活得壹樣長。鄉村的新娘還保留著佩帶迷叠香花環的古老習俗，以表懷念之情。花環是在婚禮前夕由新娘的朋友編織而成，它象征著智慧、愛情和忠誠。
Egypt: Families, rather than grooms, propose to the bride. In Egypt, many marriages are arranged. The zaffa, or wedding march, is a musical procession of drums, bagpipes, horns, belly dancers, and men carrying flaming swords; it announces that the marriage is about to begin.
埃及：在埃及，由新郎的家人，而不是新郎本人，向新娘求婚。許多婚姻還是父母之命，媒妁之言。Zaffa，也就是婚禮，其實是壹個充滿音樂的列隊遊行，有鼓、風笛、號角及肚皮舞，男人們手持火紅的劍。這個儀式宣告，婚姻即將開始。
England: Traditionally, the village bride and her wedding party always walk together to the church. Leading the procession: a small girl strewing, blossoms along the road, so the bride's path through life will always be happy and laden with flowers.
英格蘭：按照傳統，鄉村的新娘和參加婚禮的人們總是壹起步行走向教堂。壹個小姑娘走在隊列最前面，她壹路拋撒鮮花，預示著新娘壹生的道路上也將開滿鮮花，永遠幸福。
Finland: Brides wear golden crowns. After the wedding, unmarried women dance in a circle around the blindfolded bride, waiting for her to place her crown on someone's head. It is thought that whoever she crowns will be the next to wed. The bride and groom have seats of honor at the reception. The bride holds a sieve covered with a silk shawl; when the guests slip money into the sieve, their names and the amounts given are announced to those assembled by a groomsman.
芬蘭：新娘頭戴金色的花冠。婚禮後，未婚婦女圍著被蒙住眼睛的新娘跳舞，等著新娘將她頭上的花冠戴到某個人的頭上。被新娘戴上花冠的人被認為是下壹個要結婚的人。新娘和新郎坐在婚宴的貴賓席上，新娘手持壹個篩子，篩子上蓋有壹塊絲綢披巾。當來賓們將錢塞進篩子時，壹個伴郎會向在場的來賓宣布放錢的來賓姓名以及禮金的數額。
Greece: The koumbaros, traditionally the groom's godfather, is an honored guest who participates in the wedding ceremony. Today, the koumbaros is very often the best man, who assists in the crowning of the couple (with white or gold crown, or with crowns made of everlasting flowers, or of twigs of love and vine wrapped in silver and gold paper), and in the circling of the altar three times. Other attendants may read Scripture, hold candles, pack the crowns in a special box after the ceremony. To be sure of a "sweet life", a Greek bride may carry a lump of sugar in her glove on wedding day.
希臘：通常是新郎的教父，擔任婚禮上的嘉賓，現在嘉賓常常由伴郎擔任，其職責是協助新郎新娘戴上花冠（花冠有白色和金色的，花冠由四季開放的鮮花，或由用金色或銀色的紙包起來的象征愛情的樹枝和藤編織而成）。戴上花冠後，新人們圍著聖壇繞三圈。別的出席婚禮的人則朗讀《聖經》，手持蠟燭，並在婚禮後將花冠放置在壹個特殊的盒子裏。為了確保婚後生活的甜蜜，希臘新娘在結婚那壹天，可在手套裏塞壹塊糖。
Korea: Ducks are included in the wedding procession because ducks mate for life. The groom once traveled to the bride's house on a white pony, bearing fidelity symbols--a gray goose and gander.
韓國: 在婚禮行列中會包括鴨子，因為鴨子總是終身相伴。過去，新郎騎壹匹小白馬去新娘家，並帶上壹對象征著忠誠的灰色的雌鵝和雄鵝。
Malaysia: The groom's gifts to the bride are delivered to her home by costumed children in a noisy procession, carrying lavish trays of food and currency folded into animal or flower shapes. Each wedding guest is given a beautifully decorated hard-boiled egg, a symbol of fertility.
馬來西亞：新郎贈送給新娘的禮物由盛裝打扮的孩子們組成的熱鬧隊伍送過去，孩子們捧著許多盛有食物和用錢折疊成的動物和花卉形狀的托盤。每位參加婚禮的來賓都獲贈壹個裝飾精美的煮熟了的雞蛋, 它是生育的象征。
Mexico: A "lasso" a very large rosary, is wound around the couple's shoulders and hands during the ceremony to show the union and protection of marriage. Guests at many Mexican weddings gather around the couple in a heart-shaped ring at the reception, perhaps before the first dance.
墨西哥：在婚禮上，新婚夫婦的肩膀和手被壹串很大的念珠（“套索”）所纏繞，表示雙方的結合和對婚姻的保護。在許多墨西哥人的婚禮上，在第壹支舞曲前，來賓們圍繞著新婚夫婦站成壹個心形的圈。