Jumping The Broom - Symbolism

Symbolism

Jumping over the broom symbolized various things depending on the culture. In the American south, the custom determined who ran the household. Whoever jumped highest over the broom was the decision maker of the household. Or, alternatively, whoever landed on the ground first after jumping the broom was predicted to be the decision maker in the marriage. The jumping of the broom does not constitute taking a "leap of faith" because the practice of jumping the broom pre-dates the phrase coined by Søren Aabye Kierkegaard by one hundred years, if not more. Among southern Africans, who were largely not a part of the Atlantic slave trade, it represented the wife's commitment or willingness to clean the courtyard of the new home she had joined. It has often been assumed that, in England, jumping over the broom (or sometimes walking over a broom), always indicated an irregular or non-church union (as in the expressions "Married over the besom", "living over the brush"), but there are examples of the phrase being used in the context of legal weddings, both religious and civil. Other sources have stepping over a broom as a test of chastity, while putting out a broom was also said to be a sign ‘that the housewife’s place is vacant’ and a way, therefore, of advertising for a wife.

In America the phrase could be used as slang describing the act of getting married legally, rather than as one specifying an informal union not recognised by church or state.