An ancient Roman wedding was weirder than you might think. Yes, they had the usuals like noisy crowds & songs, but they also had walnuts flying through the air. But why would guests throw them? And why specifically walnuts? Let’s find out. What strange wedding traditions do you know about?
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What exactly was thrown
The word the Romans used was nuces, which essentially means “nuts.” However, it wasn’t just any kind of nut. Pliny the Elder, an ancient scholar who loved cataloging stuff, singled out walnuts, which they called nuces iuglande, and they apparently had a connection to the rowdy wedding songs that the ancient Romans sang.
When it happened during the ceremony
According to ancient sources, the nut-throwing happened right as the bride entered the groom’s house. It was the big entrance moment for the wedding, and the idea was to bring in a little extra luck as she crossed the threshold.
The practical explanations
Pliny’s explanation is rather interesting. He said walnuts were perfect for weddings because the seed is under two layers, the green husk & the hard shell. As such, they symbolized fertility. He also mentioned that the sound they make when hitting the ground counted as a lucky sign, although he did prefer the fertility angle.
What Virgil says the groom should do
Ancient Roman poet Virgil also wrote about the custom, literally telling the groom to throw nuts. He writes “sparge, marite, nuces” in Eclogue 8, which translates to “scatter the nuts, husband.” Virgil included the detail next to a part about lighting new wedding torches. As such, it was clearly part of the checklist for the event.
Who received the nuts
However, when they threw the nuts, they weren’t aiming at the bride, nor did they throw them into the air for the gods. They threw them to the boys. It worked a little like Halloween trick-or-treating, except instead of candy, the kids received walnuts & they had to scramble to get them.
Giving up nuts
In Roman culture, “giving up nuts” was a way of saying someone had outgrown their childhood games. Kids used to play with nuts like marbles. As such, at weddings, when guests handed nuts to boys, it was something that kids liked, so giving them up quite literally meant that you were no longer a child.
The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:
