BRIDAL TRADITIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 March 1925, Page 15

BRIDAL TRADITIONS.

Bridal robes carry us back to the very .-beginning of our civilisation. At first ,the Anglo-Saxon maiden went to the altar with her long tresses of flaxen hair flowing gracefully over her shoulders; and when fashion later decreed that her hail’ should he put up, the,''bridal veil was introduced to take the . place of her silken locks. Tne bride’s gown, too, has been of white -material from time immemorial. Colonr innovations, it is true, have recently been essayed, but the old tradition will die hard which reserved .wiiite as the most fitting .symbol ot youth and innocence.

Most interesting of, all to trace is the origin and history of the bridal wreath. Saxon brides were crowned by their married friends with a. garland made from the ears of corn and wheat, this •garland being a. symbol also. At a lateiJ date it was composed of myrtle arid roses, the time-honoured emblems of true love. Later still, it consisted of the leaves and blossoms of rosemary fitted on a metal crown, the special virtue of rosemary being, of course, its power of strengthening the Wearer ’s m emory.

For a still later brief period the gilt chaplet was all the vogue, flowers and foliage 'being entirely dispensed with. Tn Victorian days the bride was led into church wearing her coronal of syringa, an ancient .symbor.remodelled to suit the ,taste of her generation. And close upon her heels, following the same old tradition, comes our own modern bride with her pretty wreath of orange blossom.