Obaba Museum

During the weekend, I attended the wedding of a friend and you know there were no ring bearers, just flower girls (about two of them). My mind flashed back to my childhood, when I really featured in multiple weddings as the ring bearer, the role was simple, I dress up like a young groom and present the rings when the priest or pastor asks for them. Back then I usually thought the significance of the flower girl and ring bearer was to symbolise a fruitful marriage.

Many of us are familiar with them, but what is their significance exactly? What do they represent and their roles in English weddings.

This tradition can be traced to the ancient Egyptian era some say Romans, but we’ll go with Egyptians, they’re older. The mini couples were a necessary part of weddings then but for slightly different reasons than now. The reasons, like every tradition, modified with time. So let’s take a look at their peculiarities and what they represent.

The Flower Girl. The flower girl is an earlier tradition than the ring bearers. The Egyptian flower girls carried more grains than flowers. This was sprayed in front of the bride to herald reproduction and procreation for the new couple.

History has it that at a time garlic was used instead during the ages of superstitions to ward off supposed evil spirits in the marriage.

With time, the grains evolved to flowers( I’ll say due to the rising cost of food and increase in human population, we can’t be wasting all those grains no more) sorry Egyptians, you guys had more food than your population, We don’t.

Presently, the major role of the ‘girl that sprays flower’ today is to well, spray flowers or carry floral hoops( to signify endless love). They wear white and move in front of the bride to signify the bride’s innocence and transition, -more like a before and after- as marriage is seen as a transition into adulthood.

Now for our little groom, Ring Bearer. The ancient Egyptians, -yeah we’re back to Pharaoh again- usually delivered the ring with swords. It goes without saying that task was not for a kid. The wealthy ones used pillows, so this is where the kid kind of came in sometimes.

I have a feeling the kids used then are slightly older than our average ring bearer age now. Even wealthy Egyptians wouldn’t want to lose a precious ring, kids are carel… you complete the word.

The Ring bearers are still from the pageboy family only slightly different tasks. So didn’t you wonder why the sword? I don’t know either, maybe we’ll ask Chisisi from Memphis when next we get around an Egyptian tomb.

However, the pillows are quite clear; for the couple to achieve that which we have when we put our heads on pillows(hint: some frighten you to scream awake, some you don’t want to wake from).

The dreams of every marriage at the point of wedding is ’till death do us part, in love and…’ so the significance of the ring on the pillow.

The average age for the ring bearers and his floral counterpart since the victorian era has been 3-9 years of age. So, at most weddings they are usually using faux ring while the real deal is with the best man. The more adventurous and daring couples actually leave it with the ring bearers, though it’s usually tied to the pillow.

Rumour has it, (rumour usually has a portion of truth in it though) that in the last some couples would have a particular number of children, ring bearers, flower girls and page boys. This is supposed to be inn accordance with the least amount off children they want to have.

Recently, some couples give this roles to their elderly ones( mostly because there are going to be PG acts at the wedding which quite frankly kids shouldn’t be exposed to yet.

The roles of this mini couples has been left for our younger family members or kids we are close to but it doesn’t have to be limited to that, so put that in mind when you’re planning your wedding.