wedding traditions

[trailrash]

I am getting married in May and I would like to know if anyone may know some Czech wedding traditions that would be different from our custom traditions here. My Grandfather is Czech and I will be saying a speech to him in Czech and then we will perform a Czech wedding tradition to surprise him. I have tried to speak with some of my cousins in the Czech Republic but the language barrier makes it hard. I am learning but so are they! Thankyou to anyone who can help
Dobre Den!
Ryan L. Kulinec

[Chlapec]

The new bride breaks a plate and the groom sweeps it up. Also, dobry den is more like "hello" than a "good bye."

[trailrash]

Chlapec,

Thankyou for your response. What does this tradition signify? Also, i sometimes say good day to someone when i am saying goodbye. But i do appreciate your help!

Thanks,

Ryan L. Kulinec

[Zuzka]

Hello Ryan,
breaking the plate by throwing it on the ground and collecting the potsherds from the ground is necessary for keeping the luck after the marriage in a new family. The luck depends on the skill of the pair to tidy up the plate´s potsherds. the pair should keep one piece of broken plate for the future. The other tradition is to eat a soup with one spoon while the husband and wife have just one hand free and husband´s left and wife´s right hand are tied together. The wife should feed husband more than he feeds her. Also sometimes a wedding-guest woman change the clothes and the colour of the skin into gipsy looking woman and she and a baby / a doll/ come to husband saying him she has a baby with him. He has to pay for the baby as well as the other wedding- guests do while the money goes to the husband and wife later.
Well, that is all I know.

[Dana]

Hi Ryan,

I'm learning some intersting information here myself thanks to Zuzka. I'm definitely not an expert on Czech wedding traditions but what I've seen is that the china plate is broken by a "third party" (not the bride or groom) - usually one of the staff of the restaurant where the reception is held. The plate is broken at the entrance to the restaurant as the bride and groom are walking in. I've also seen that both the bride and groom work on cleaning up the mess - the groom sweeps and the bride holds the dust pan. This is supposed to bring the couple good luck and teach them how to take care of their common household. The groom can then carry the bride over the threshold in his arms.

There is a custom that is sometimes performed that I have never witnessed so I can only tell you about it based on what I've heard. At some point during the wedding reception (I don't think it happens before), a group of men who are friends of the bride and/or groom kidnap the bride when the groom is not paying attention. They take her to a previously arranged place (e.g. to a pub) and the groom has to find her and "buy her out". I think this is a tradition that grooms don't particularly like and I think most of them secretly hope that there is not going to be any kidnapping at their wedding. If anyone knows more about this custom, please post it here.

Hezky den!

[Jana]

There is even more significance in the tradition of cleaning up the broken piece of china - at the beginning the bride and the groom try to get hold of the broom, because that one who gets it will be the head and master of the household. The holder of the pan will always have to be obedient.
I do not know about any man who would want to play a submissive role in his family, so you can see sometimes at wedding receptions real "fights" between the bride and the groom. Even my husband - who is American - accepted the tradition at our wedding in the CR two years ago and fought for the broom (successfully, I must say).