Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom relating to wedding ceremonies in different cultural traditions, found in "many diverse cultures, those of Africa − Europe including Scotland, Hungary and Gypsy culture", all of which "include brooms at wedding rituals." It has been particularly associated with the Romani gypsy people of the United Kingdom, especially those in Wales. It has been suggested that there is "evidence showing the wedding custom was practised by gypsies in England, Scotland" as well as by African Americans and other groups.
Read more about Jumping The Broom: Practice, Origin, Symbolism, Decline After The End of American Slavery, Stigma in African-American Communities, Other Groups, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words jumping and/or broom:
“Everything seems beautiful because you don’t understand. Those flying fish, they’re not leaping for joy, they’re jumping in terror. Bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water, it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies, the glitter of putrescence. There’s no beauty here, only death and decay.”
—Curtis Siodmak (1902–1988)
“If the juggler is tired now, if the broom stands
In the dust again, if the table starts to drop
Through the daily dark again, and though the plate
Lies flat on the table top,
For him we batter our hands
Who has won for once over the world’s weight.”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)