Broom Jump...rant

nefariousmoon · May 2011

Ok. First off I apologize if I accidentally offend anyone here, but I need to say this.
It seems like lately everywhere I look the broom jump is being sectioned off as a strictly african traditon, and frankly this is annyoing the living you know what out of me.
So basically to get this off my chest, here we go.
The broom jump is not just an African tradition. It has its orgins in other parts of the world as well. Yes durring the dark days of slavery it was used as a way for slaves to proclaim that they were married. But it was not its orrigin. Yes it has and was used in Africa for a long time before then. BUT it also has origins from all over the world. It has been inclueded in Celtic weddings, it was also used by the Gypsies, Pre-Eurpean cultures, and also today in many Pagan weddings.
Basically all I am saying is please quit classiflying this as a singular culture ceramony. Its not. Anyone who needs proof all you have to do is google the history of it and you will see plenty of sources that state just this.
Ok, well I feel better now. Again sorry if I offended anyone I just really had to say this.

CeliaKH · May 2011

Absolutely agree. I had never heard of it being strictly of African origins until recently. Interesting you meniton Pagans - I went to the wedding of a neighbor's daughter who is a Pagan, and she and her husband did the broom jump. I hadn't associated it with Pagans before.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown · May 2011

It's also quite controversial in the African American community, so when people bring it up, they probably don't know what they're getting into!

kiyamurph · May 2011

Hopefully, before anyone includes a certain "tradition" in their wedding that they research and find the true meaning behind it. FI and I are jumping the broom at our wedding and I'm including a short blurb about the meaning of it in the program in case people don't understand the meaning of it, but nowhere in my explanation am I saying that it was originated from the slave times. I think that people may assume that it's an African tradition based off of what they see on TV, and unless they actually research it, some people may have no clue that it originated from another culture.

And Msmerymac is correct, some people in the black community will take a HUGE offense to it because you have some who don't see the point in it since we're no longer slaves, but others like myself just want to honor and pay homage to our ancestors who came before us.

jmp0930 · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_broom-jumprant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:36Discussion:18d0ded0-1570-4e05-a9ee-9e63a224f207Post:0b192c16-4840-4be4-95d3-826131ec42bc">Re: Broom Jump...rant</a>:
[QUOTE]Hopefully, before anyone includes a certain "tradition" in their wedding that they research and find the true meaning behind it. FI and I are jumping the broom at our wedding and I'm including a short blurb about the meaning of it in the program in case people don't understand the meaning of it, but nowhere in my explanation am I saying that it was originated from the slave times. I <strong>think that people may assume that it's an African tradition based off of what they see on TV, and unless they actually research it, some people may have no clue that it originated from another culture. And Msmerymac is correct, some people in the black community will take a HUGE offense to it because you have some who don't see the point in it since we're no longer slaves, but others like myself just want to honor and pay homage to our ancestors who came before us.
</strong>Posted by kiyamurph[/QUOTE]

This!! I am not jumping the broom at my wedding, but I respect any one and any culture that does. If you do your research, almost everything that one culture adopted was probably taken from another, that's just the way it is. I think that it is been so common in the African American tradition that that is why you hear about it so much. It is controversial in the African community and some people of color find it offensive, I don't, but im just one person. Bottom line is, it shouldn't bother you that a tradition is associated with one culture when you see it all the time on tv associated with that culture only. If any culture wants to jump the broom, they can, but you probably won't see an episode of David Tutera, Bridezilla, or any other weddiing show that shows another culture doing it.

evalentine1 · May 2011

Honestly, I had never heard of it being an African American tradition until recently (the last few months, when we were starting to do research into traditions we wanted to include in our own wedding). I have always associated it with Celtic tradition. It was something Hubby to Be and I considered for a time, since both of us stick closer to our Welsh routes more than anything else. We decided not to go with this tradition ourselves. But I have to agree with a major point in all of this: People really should do research into traditions. Whether it is to find out the cultural origins or the original meanings of the traditions.

nefariousmoon · May 2011

Thanks everyone for not jumping my but. *chuckles* I actually second guessed myself posting this in fear of starting an uproar.

kiyamurph: I compleaty agree with you with hoping people really do researh elements of their ceramony before using them. And its awesome that you are going to be doing a broom jump, and explaining it in your program. I think thats a wonderful idea!

jmp0930: Really good point. The media really doesn't do much for educating people beyond one aspect of a lot of things.

StageManager14: Yikes! Sorry you got chewed out! I've actually thought about doing one ceramony and changing my mind after doing deep research into it becuase the meaning wasn't really what I wanted to convay.

Santorini2011 · May 2011

It's such a shame that this is even an issue but I agree totally.

handfast4me · May 2011

::Waves at Stage::

Yeah, I got chewed out by an AA bride on one of these boards for pointing out that while AAs might use this now, it was originally a Pagan tradition. That was when no one but whites were considered "good enough" to be Christian, so others subbed this in, or may have been Pagan. She said "I'm NOT talking about the Pagan tradition!!! Are you trying to argue with me?" Uh, no, idiot, I"m TELLING you the origin of this. Some people's children.

MizLynn · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_broom-jumprant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:18d0ded0-1570-4e05-a9ee-9e63a224f207Post:8d212521-b147-443a-824d-861a4002ad44">Re: Broom Jump...rant</a>:
[QUOTE]::Waves at Stage:: Yeah, I got chewed out by an AA bride on one of these boards for pointing out that while AAs might use this now, it was originally a Pagan tradition. That was when no one but whites were considered "good enough" to be Christian, <strong>so others subbed this in, or may have been Pagan. </strong> She said "I'm NOT talking about the Pagan tradition!!! Are you trying to argue with me?" Uh, no, idiot, I"m TELLING you the origin of this. Some people's children.
Posted by handfast4me[/QUOTE]

<div>
</div><div>It was definitely a "pagan" (ie. not Christian) tradition, but it was also being practiced in Africa predating the slave trade. So it's not something we just picked up from the Welsh and/or the Wiccans when we got to America. </div><div>
</div><div>It's actually sort of fascinating to me that cultures separated so much geographically (Welsh and West African, for example) have a shared cultural tradition. Personally, I think that's what makes it such a powerful ritual / tradition to incorporate and why I've been looking into using it in my own ceremony.</div><div>
</div>

handfast4me · May 2011

The argument that was being made by the woman who attacked me was that no, the tradition wasn't from the Celts, but only blacks in this country. She wasn't understanding that the tradition pre-dates this country, and pre-dates Christianity.

dragonwagon · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_broom-jumprant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:18d0ded0-1570-4e05-a9ee-9e63a224f207Post:5ce3218c-606c-4076-865f-b0179e7858d7">Re: Broom Jump...rant</a>:
[QUOTE]It's also quite controversial in the African American community, so when people bring it up, they probably don't know what they're getting into!
Posted by msmerymac[/QUOTE]

I can see that it would be. It seems like some African Americans want to use it because they think it is part of their culture, when it really only became part of their culture when they were slaves. Not sure why they would want to hold on to that aspect.

Broom Jump...rant

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