Wedding Cake: Traditions
Together Act
Traditionally the wedding cake is first cut by the wedding couple together, often the bride actually cutting with the groom assisting the act. A ceremonial knife or sometimes even a sword is used for cutting. A common ritual in the process is feeding the first bites of the cake by the couple to each other.
Traditions And Beliefs No Longer There
Some traditions over the ages have been discontinued for many reasons including inconvenience and social and cultural changes. Some practices were too chauvinistic to have been continued in a changing social mores. An archaic tradition required the bride to serve all the pieces of the wedding cake to the groom’s family symbolizing transfer of her labor from her own family to the household of the groom. A belief that a maiden sleeping with a piece of wedding cake beneath her pillow might dream of her future husband is also not practiced any more. Ancient Romans’ rituals of breaking the wedding cake on the head of the bride in celebration of fertility were dispensed with long back. Tall piles of wedding cakes were made during earlier times for the couple to kiss on top of them without knocking it down. If the newlyweds succeeded, it would indicate a long and prosperous marriage.
Surviving Traditions
Feeding the first bites of the wedding cake to each other by the couple is a long held tradition. It may signify the onset of a new family as a result of the marriage ending dependence on the parents. It may also symbolize the commitment of the duo to henceforth provide for each other. There are traditions regarding distribution of the wedding cake after the couple has fed on the piece cut first. While the guests are offered the slices of the cake, some portions may be set aside for invitees who could not make it to the party. Another surviving custom is to keep a portion preserved in frozen state for eating by the couple at the first wedding anniversary.
