French Wedding Traditions and Customs - Essay Example

French Wedding Traditions and Customs Introduction: To begin with, culture is considered to be the identity of an individual and a society. Further,this individual identity is constituted and developed by the wider perspectives of cultural heritage. In other words, knowing an individual is to know a culture, and vice versa. As culture and identity are closely associated with each other, it is our responsibility to maintain and preserve our cultural identity for the new generation as well as for people outside our culture. Because, cultural heritage offers people a genuine window to look closely at the richness and grandeur of the past and present of a society or a community. This paper briefly addresses the cultural heritage of the French society and introduces particularly the French traditions and customs related to the wedding ceremonies of French people. When it comes to describing traditions and customs, a lot of speculation is based on the current trend of avoiding or neglecting these traditional views by today’s younger generation. However, that does not paint a sad picture. Some traditions and customs are still followed by the French people in their wedding styles. The paper also discusses briefly the different wedding ceremonies followed by the French communities, along with all the significant aspects relating to the traditional French wedding. French wedding ceremonies: Wedding ceremonies have always been a fascination with the bride and groom taking vows of being faithful and loyal to each other for the rest of their lives. It has always been like a fairytale with the spouses being given special treatment like prince and his princess. French wedding ceremonies also speak of the same charisma that is as fascinating as any other wedding tradition. This further requires a deeper glance into the history of French weddings. When it comes to describing a traditional French wedding, its varied customs and traditions spell of myriad hues of love and romance. As the customs and traditions indicate the important aspects of marriage, the traditional aspects involve a number of things to be discussed briefly in the following sections. Wedding costume: A traditional French wedding is usually synonymous with love and romance as repeated above. Therefore, the wedding costume gets a lot of special attention. Moreover, the design of the wedding costume involves serious consideration of the traditional values. Starting with the Medieval and Renaissance periods, French wedding costumes were just the elaborate versions of contemporary dresses in the sense that they did not require any distinctive coloring. Usually, the bride’s best dress was transformed into her wedding dress adorned by jewelry, laces, ribbons, embroidery, beads, etc. The concept of the all-white wedding gown is relatively new in French tradition. Introduced by Ann of Brittany, daughter of Francis II in 1499, the all-white wedding gown started receiving popularity and acceptance only in 19th century. The elaborate styling of modern white wedding gown is attributed to Empress Eugenie, who wore it in her wedding to Napoleon III in 1853. The idea behind an all-white wedding gown is to symbolize the matrimonial alliance as a token of the bride’s purity and innocence. Now coming to the traditional customs related to the wedding attire, two most important concepts are – a) the bridal trousseau and b) the wedding armoire. The bridal trousseau is a bundle of linen cloth given to the baby girl by her parents. The trousseau is also known as the ‘hope chest’ that is given to the girl for her future wedding ceremony. Besides, the girl is gifted with clothes, jewelry or any other items that she would need after her wedding, by her family members and friends. Contemporary customs also include this but in a modified manner of the old custom. Today, the bride is presented with all the household necessities in a stone-carved box by her family just before the wedding. According to the French tradition, the wedding armoire is also known as the hope chest that is used for the bride’s trousseau. The armoire is crafted by the bride’s father with the symbols of wealth and prosperity. Traditionally, the wedding armoire was designed by craftsmen and offered to the newlyweds as a wedding present. In the course of time, the wedding armoire has evolved into a fascinating stone-carved box with modern household articles to raise the bride’s future family. Whereas, the bridal trousseau is now a special outfit gifted to the bride by her family that she would wear after removing her gown and take with her to her honeymoon. Wedding procession: French wedding processions are still followed according to their age-old traditions especially in rural areas. Traditionally, the groom calls on his future bride in the morning of the wedding day and escorts her from her house to the wedding chapel in a procession. Headed by a group of musicians, the procession includes the parents of both the bride and the groom along with the family members, friends and other guests. Traditionally, the musicians are followed by the bride with her father, invited guests and the groom with his mother at the end of the procession. As part of the customs, the bridal procession is blocked by the village children with white ribbons, which the bride must cut and proceed to the wedding chapel. There are other customs as well including the bride bribing the beggars to remove hedgerow briars. The significance of such obstacles lies in the traditional belief that the bridal couple has to overcome every obstacle together in order to signify their common path in a new life to be lived together. Wedding ceremony: In a traditional French wedding, two ceremonies are important – a) a civil ceremony that acts as a private wedding and open only to those close to the bride and groom, and b) a religious ceremony open to all. Once the wedding procession along with the bridal couple reaches the wedding chapel, the wedding ceremony begins to take place. The chapel is decorated with incense sticks and flowers. White flowers are usually used in the church to symbolize purity of the wedding ceremony. After the guests have assembled in the wedding chapel, the groom walks his mother down the aisle. Then the groom and bride stand beneath a silk canopy known as a ‘carre’ to exchange vows. This silk fabric is held over the head of the couple as they receive the final blessings of the priest who solemnize the auspicious function. The same silk canopy is used for the baptism of their newborn child as well. Once the wedding vows are exchanged, the newly-wedded couple emerges from the church and proceeds towards the reception venue. Outside the church, the couple is showered with wheat and rice as a symbol of prosperity and fertility. As the couple leaves the wedding chapel, they walk through flower arches. These arches use fragrant flowers, which are also used for bridal bouquets and adornments. The use of fragrant flowers symbolizes warding off evil spirits and freshening up the atmosphere. Wedding reception: The final celebration of a French wedding takes place in the wedding reception. At the wedding reception, guests assemble to celebrate the wedding, bless and congratulate the newlyweds. The wedding gifts brought by the guests also speak of traditional practices during the Middle Ages, when wedding guests used to bring small cakes and stake in a pile in the center of a table. The piles were made as high as possible, and the couple was asked to kiss over them without knocking them over. The practice symbolized a lifetime of prosperity for the newlyweds. The traditional French wedding celebration cake is known as ‘croquembouche’ or more popularly as ‘la piece montee’. Invented in the 17th century, the cake is made of small crème-filled pastry puffs piled in a pyramid and covered in a caramel glaze and spun sugar. The cake is decorated with chocolate drizzled all over. As part of tradition, the newlyweds toast each other from an engraved cup with two handles (‘la coupe de mariage’) usually passed down through generations. Two significant concepts associated with the French wedding are – a) Garter (‘la jarretiere’) and b) Chiverie (‘le Charivari’). Garter is a narrow fabric band that is thrown by the bride at her guests at the end of her wedding celebrations. It is thought to bring good luck to whoever catches hold of it. According to the old tradition, the groom’s best man was in charge of stealing the garter from the bride and selling it into small pieces to the wedding guests. Chiverie is the popular practice of wedding night prank played upon the newlyweds to interrupt the couple at night by a crowd clanging pots and pans, ringing bells and horns. More traditionally speaking, such pranks were usually played on widows or widowers who were getting remarried. Conclusion: Love, romance, fun and merriment are essentially associated with a traditional French wedding. All the customs and ceremonies discussed above are an essential part of traditional French wedding that are still followed more or less by the French people. These traditions and customs are equally important to make the younger generation aware of their age-old traditional values and rituals while enhancing the knowledge of outsiders on French wedding traditions and customs. In short, following and practicing the traditions and customs is a nice way of keeping the ancient traditions alive, and thus making a traditional French wedding more unique and a memorable one too. References: 1. “French Wedding Customs.” World Wedding Customs.com. http://www.worldweddingcustoms.com/wedding_customs/wedding_traditions/french_wedding_customs.html/. 2004. 4 April 2011. 2. “French Wedding Tradition.” Classy Wedding Favors. http://www.classyweddingfavors.com/etiquette-French-Tradition.htm/. 2004. Web. 4 April 2011. 3. “French Wedding Traditions and Customs.” NJS Weddingshop. http://www.njsweddingshop.com/french_wedding_customs.htm/. Web. 4 April 2011. 4. Joy, D. “Traditional French Wedding.” Buzzle.com. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/traditional-french-wedding.html/. 2010. Web. 4 April 2011. 5. Steiner, J. “Classic French Wedding.” Americans in France.com. http://www.americansinfranch.net/culture/Classic_French_Wedding.cfm/. Web. 4 April 2011. NOTE FOR VISUAL PRESENTATION: Prepare a small video presentation of a French wedding. You can either edit a personal wedding video of your cousin or relative, or download any popular French wedding scene from a film. Showing your personal wedding video clip will be more interesting as you will easily be able to explain the French wedding traditions and rituals through it. Moreover, wedding photographs, especially the ones from your private collection will be interesting sources for the audience. Read More