Wedding traditions with the broom

A broom sweeps a household clean and marks a threshold between two lives. Jumping over one is a wedding custom with a particular meaning for African American couples, and brooms have a place in some older European customs.

Jumping the broom

In the United States, enslaved couples were often not allowed legal marriage, and many marked their union by jumping over a broom. The details of its origin are debated, with some scholars noting its roots in West Africa and others in Britain. It was revived in the twentieth century and especially after the television series Roots in 1977. It is now a common part of African American weddings, held at the end of the ceremony, and the broom is kept in the home.

Brooms in Europe

In Wales and in some British Romani communities, jumping the broom was a form of informal marriage in older times, though the extent of the practice is unclear. In Germany the Polterabend ends with the couple sweeping up the shards together to show that they can solve problems. Pagan and Wiccan weddings also use the broom, as a symbol of sweeping out the old.