The Significance of “Throwing the Shoe.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1, 5 January 1907, Page 21

The Significance of “Throwing the Shoe.”

CUSTOM CAME FROM ANCIENTS. Removing of Sandals at one Time Indicated the Transfer of Authority with Regard to Persons and Places. Throwing the old shoe was not always Confined to weddings, though the custom nowadays has eome to be associated entirely with the going away of bridal couples. Authorities differ concerning the origin of the practice as well as of the exact meaning attached to it, but there seems to be a general opinion that it lias to do with some very ancient ceremony or rite in connection with the tramtfer of property—woman being re£3_±tn_h_ajno»g the nations where

the custom of such a ceremony is first found.

There is also the possibility of its referring to the time when the bridegroom carried off the bride by force, though this seems less likely. It was in the sense of confirming a sale or exchange that the Jews understood the removal and giving of a shoe or sandal. When tiie kinsman of Boas consented to waive his claim upon the parcel of land which Naomi would sell, in favour of Boaz, he “drew off his shoe.” for “this was a testimony in Israel.’’ In a different sense the removal of a shoe marks the winding up of negotiations among the laws and ordinances given in the book of Deuteronomy, where the widow who i« refused marriage by her husband’s surviving brother is directed to “eome unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot/’ thus asserting her independence and heaping upon him the blame for failure to comply with the law. When the Em|x*ror Wladimir proposed marriage to the daughter of Reginald. she refused him with the words: “I will not take off my shoe to the son of a slave.” In Anglo Saxon marriages the bride’s father delivered her shoe to the bridegroom. who touched her on the head with it in token of his authority. The idea of luck is the principal thought associated with it always in these later times—especially luck in making journeys. Ben Jonson wrote—hurl after me a shoe. I’ll be merry whatever I’ll do. and old Heywood says— And home again hitherward, quirk as a bee. Now for good luck cast an old shoe at me; while Tennyson C ’Lyrical Monologue”) telle, us— For this thou shaft from all things seek, Marrow of mirth aud laughter. Ami wheresoe'er thou move, good luck Shall throw her old shoe after. Undoubtedly it is the remnant of something which came from the Egyptians or some other ancient nation with which the Jews came in contact, though investigation shows that it was never confined to any one race. There are some interesting points in regard to the practice which have usually! been overlooked in treating the subject. for example, the priests and worshippers at the shrines of the Roman Cybele, the Grecian Ops, the Canaanitish Ashtaroth. and the Egyptian Isis were compelled to remove their sandals. The shoes and sandals of the Greeks, Romans. Egyptians, and Jews were or namented with horns, crescents, and other representations of the moon, while at marriage ceremonies the custom of casting the shoe was. and is now. combined with the throwing of Howers and various kinds of grain. These symbols ami offerings seem to indicate the propitiation of a god. probably the deity who presides over productiveness.