Skip to main content

What is the origin of the term 'Best Man' at a wedding?

The tradition of a best man has its origin with the Germanic Goths, when it was customary and preferable for a man to marry a woman from within his own community. When women came into short supply "locally," eligible bachelors would have to seek out and capture a bride from a neighboring community. As you might guess, this was not a one-person operation, and so the future bridegroom would be accompanied by a male companion who would help. Our custom of the best man is a throwback to that two-man, strong-armed tactic, for, of course the future groom would select only the best man he knew to come along for such an important task. The role of the best man evolved. By 200 A.D. his task was still more than just safeguarding the ring. There remained a real threat that the bride's family would attempt to forcibly obtain her return, so the best man remained at the groom's side throughout the marriage ceremony, alert and well-armed. He continued his duties after the ceremony by standing guard as sentry outside the newlywed's home. Much of this is German folklore, but is not without written documentation and physical artifacts. We have records that indicate that beneath the altars of many churches of early peoples (the Huns, Goths, Visigoths, and Vandals) there lay an arsenal of clubs, knives, and spears. The indication is that these were there to protect the groom from possible attack by the bride's family in an attempt to recapture her

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Outrank Your Competition in Google with our SEO Packages

Top Ranking SEO provides you with a service to increase your Google rankings by  hiring Google Certified Experts . First, you should understand why a Google Certified Expert is required. Google Certified Experts help your website improve search engines when a user visits the first five websites that appear after search, so it's important to rank your site among the top ten results. Google Certified Experts help your website in one of the best placements. Google Certified Professionals not only provide SEO services, but also help improve user experience and ease of use of your website. The fact is that the user has great confidence in Google's top 10 results, so our Google Certified Expert ensures that your site wins this site and the trust of users and visitors. If you'd like to  promote your website , you should use Google Certified Experts, where we provide social promotion for your website. If you have a large web site, it is important that you use SEO to survive and thu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Links for Education Powerful Backlinks

http://blogger.psu.edu/ http://blogs.berkeley.edu/ http://statemuseum.arizona.edu/ http://blog.uwgb.edu/ http://gsc.mit.edu/blog/ http://www.career.umkc.edu/ http://blogpublic.lib.msu.edu/ http://www.dmu.edu/blog/ http://www.amcollege.edu/ http://aar.slu.edu/ http://abroadblogs.newpaltz.edu/ http://aceop.wvstateu.edu/ http://blog.admissions.cornell.edu/ http://admissions.fsu.edu/ http://admissions.ncsu.edu/ http://aearu.ntu.edu.tw/ http://ag.arizona.edu/ http://aipi.clas.asu.edu/ http://aiti.mit.edu/blog/ http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ http://alumni.brandeis.edu/ http://alumni.gsb.stanford.edu/ http://tomprofblog.mit.edu/ http://answer.rutgers.edu/blog/ http://antarctica.uab.edu/blog/ http://aphia.rso.siuc.edu/ http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/ http://apps.exploratorium.edu/ http://apps.pathology.jhu.edu/ http://archery.berkeley.edu/ http://architecture.tulane.edu/ http://asiahealthpolicy.stanford.edu/ http://asic.union.edu/ http://asunews.asu.edu/ http://www.rioredstorm.com/ http://atif...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Bones Grow in Body

When you were a baby, you had tiny hands, tiny feet, and tiny everything! Slowly, as you grew older, everything became a bit bigger, including your bones. A baby's body has about 300 bones at birth. These eventually fuse (grow together) to form the 206 bones that adults have. Some of a baby's bones are made entirely of a special material called cartilage (say: kar-tel-ij). Other bones in a baby are partly made of cartilage. This cartilage is soft and flexible. During childhood, as you are growing, the cartilage grows and is slowly replaced by bone, with help from calcium. By the time you are about 25, this process will be complete. After this happens, there can be no more growth — the bones are as big as they will ever be. All of these bones make up a skeleton that is both very strong and very light. more...
Post a Comment
Read more