Wedding traditions with salt
Salt is a small, humble thing with a big role.
Salt is a small, humble thing with a big role. It preserves, seasons and protects, and in many cultures to share bread and salt is to make a bond of hospitality. At weddings it can be a welcome, a test or a ward.
Bread and salt
In Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, the couple is greeted by parents with a loaf and salt, and the bride and groom take a bite, and the one who takes the larger bite is said to rule the house. In Slavic and Balkan areas the same welcome is offered to guests of honour. In Jewish custom bread is dipped in salt at the start of a meal, and some couples are greeted with bread and salt in the Ashkenazi world.
Salt as test and ward
In Turkey the bride may serve the groom coffee with salt in it during the visit to ask for her hand, to see how he responds. In Scotland and Ireland, salt was placed in a bride's pocket against bad luck, and in Italy a custom has the bride carry salt or sugar. Salt is also used in the Chinese and Japanese worlds to purify.
Written by the EveryShaadi desk with AI assistance. Background on Salt (symbol). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Hausa traditional marriage: Bembety, CC0, source
- Korovai: Olli Niemitalo, CC0, source
- Turoń: Museum: The Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, CC0, source
- Iranian wedding: Flickr.com user "avlxyz", CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Russian wedding traditions: GeorgeLouis, CC BY-SA 3.0, source