WHY WE THROW CONFETTI.
A wedding would be incomplete nowadays without confetti, which is really only a modern improvement upon the old custom of throwing rice over the bride and bridegroom. The use of rice came originally from India, where to have rice means prosperity, and the custom, therefore, of throwing it over the happy pair was a way of expressing the wish that they might never want. At the present day, in some parts of India, the bride stands in the centre of a circle of women relatives, while her mother-in-law puts a measure full of corn on her prospective daughter’s head. The husband then takes handfuls of corn from this measure and throws it over himself.
In Poland, however, they go further than this, and a crowd of people collects round the bride’s house, and bombards the door with beans, barley, and oats. » The Italians shower nuts upon the unfortunate bride and groom, while the Germans throw small buns and cakes after them.
The rice custom, however, must be a very old one, for we are told that the old Romans, on the occasion of a big wedding, would scatter corn along the whole path over which the bride had to walk,
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Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 604, 1 February 1921, Page 7
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204WHY WE THROW CONFETTI. Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 604, 1 February 1921, Page 7
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