One of the attendants then hands the broom to the groom, who makes sweeping gestures to eliminate any negative energies. The bride and groom will now begin their new life together with a clean sweep! In honoring the ritual, Bride and Groom issue a hope and a prayer of sweeping away any hatred or prejudice between people of different colors, beliefs or traditions. It is also a call of support for the marriage from the entire community of family and friends.
Traditionally, jumping the broom was also a means of sweeping away all negative energy, making way for all things that are good to come into your lives.
As our bride and groom jump the broom, they physically and spiritually cross the threshold into the land of matrimony. Minister: We end this ceremony with the African American tradition of jumping of the broom. Traditionally, the bride and groom participate in a tasting of the four elements of life – bitter, sweet, sour, and hot – as well as water to cleanse the palate, as a way of demonstrating the fullness of experience that each married couple will come to know over time. Marriage does not promise a state of euphoria or peace on a daily basis. The libation closely follows the family lineage and is a recitation of a couple’s links to each family member, living, dead and unborn. Like the wine in a communion, liquids used in libation are symbolic of the ancestral spirits. The supplication asks God for good wishes, and the conclusion ends by sending the spirits home and thanking participants and praying that they leave more blessed than when they came. To do it, the marrying couple simply lay a broomstick on the floor at their altar, and hop over it together with joined hands, usually following their wedding vows and accompanied by a prayer, song, or reading. By continuing to use this site you consent to the use of cookies on your device as described in our cookie policy unless you have disabled them. Brooms apparently played a major role in Asante culture, and during marriages a broom was even symbolically waved over the couple’s heads - but it’s not clear that jumping over one was a common practice. What is jumping the broom In practice, this marriage ritual is pretty self explanatory. The Journal of American Folklore, 1996 The. What is the meaning of jumping the broom in a wedding - Answered by a verified Wedding Planner We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our website. The libation begins with an invocation to invite everyone to participate, followed by an introduction where ancestors, elders and family members may be named. Dundes, Alan: Jumping the Broom: On the Origin and Meaning of an African American Wedding Custom page 326. Rather than saying “getting married,” we would say they are “jumping the broom.A libation is a sacred communal ritual, used in traditional African life.
The Jumping the Broom is a ceremony in which the bride and groom, either at the ceremony or at the reception. The jumping of the broom is symbolic of binding a couple in marriage and also can be used to symbolize fertility and prosperity of the couple. 2002 Myers Best Yet Stories 239 While none of our folk ever used this ceremony, we nearly always used that expression. Broom jumping is a brief ceremony usually within the wedding ceremony toward the end. In Cades Cove there was no ceremony, formal or informal, of acting this out the term was used only figuratively (Shields). 1995 Montgomery Coll : jump the broomstick = to elope and get married, often without the benefit of clergy. 1961 Coe Ridge OHP -340B That’s the reason they say they jump the broomstick now is when they go to get married. 1960 Hall Smoky Mt Folks 65 = to get married, referring to an old protection against witches, by which a bride who jumps over a broomstick as she enters her new home protects herself. 1941 Laughlin Word-list Buncombe Co 25 jump over the broom-stick = to get married (in some sections: common-law marriage). ġ939 Hall Coll (Emerts Cove TN) They never made the bride to jump the broom with me. The expression has a long history in the American South, often signifying a mock ceremony symbolizing marriage, as in part of the script of a serenade or shivaree. Jump the broom ( stick ) verb phrase To get married, usually without the benefit of clergy.