Tradition

Tonight Rick and I each ate a piece of the top tier of our wedding cake. But it's not our first anniversary! Oh no! Well, the cake had been moved around a little and ended up in my Dad's freezer, so I picked it up when I was there this past weekend. We figured, since it had been frozen already once - and we weren't even sure if it would still be good after that - why risk re-freezing it only to wait 8 more months before we eat it. It would take up room in the freezer and then maybe not even be good.

So, we ate it.

It was actually really good. Rick even started to eat a second piece. Started - then he realized just how full he already was.

I've always wondered why we eat that cake on our first anniversary, so, being who I am, I looked it up. It turns out that back in the day, around the time of the first anniversary many couples would be getting ready to welcome a new baby into their home. Rather than bake another elaborate cake for the christening celebration, people would just bake a huge cake for the wedding, and save a portion of it for the christening. So, even though now the expectation of a new baby that soon after marriage is no longer held to, the tradition of saving a piece of the cake lives on.

Interesting, huh?

I thought so. I love looking into things like that, and I figured maybe my readers would find that interesting, too.

Another one I learned last summer, while visiting Monticello is about gifts for the bridesmaids. A lady in a shop there showed us a pewter hand-held flower holder and said that they used to be used as bridesmaid gifts. But that was before they put flowers in them. Originally, people would put some sort of good-smelling herbs in them and kind of hold them in front of their mouths when they talked. Reason? Bad breath. They didn't brush their teeth regularly and bad breath was apparently something they planned for. So, I guess brides would buy a nice one of these contraptions for their bridesmaids to put their herbs in and it turned into a tradition.

Do you know of any reasons for traditions that we do simply because they are traditions? Do tell...