What is the history behind the jumping of the broom at weddings?

Answer 1

The significance of the broom to early African-Americans originates in the present-day West African country of Ghana. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, most of Ghana in the 18th century was ruled by the Asante of Ashanti Confederacy. Asante urban areas and roads were kept conspicuously clean according to visiting British and Dutch traders with the use of domestically made brooms. These same brooms were used by wives or servants to clean the courtyards of palaces or homes. The broom in Asante and other Akan cultures also held spiritual value and symbolized sweeping away past wrongs or warding off evil spirits. This is where the broom comes into play regarding marriage. Brooms were waved over the heads of marrying couples to ward off spirits. The couple would often but not always jump over the broom at the end of the ceremony. Jumping over a broom as part of a wedding ceremony was also common in pre-Christian European cultures. The custom survived the introduction of Christianity and was practiced by both blacks and whites in the American South prior to the Civil War.

Answer 2

We think of it as an Africian American ceremony, but it originated as a Celtic ceremony.
During the time of slavery, slaves were not allowed to marry, so they adopted the Celtic broom jumping of their owners as a means of making the statement of wedlock. There is also a broom & sword jumping ceremony.

Answer 3

It's a Celtic/Wiccan/Pagan tradition. The broom is symbolic of sweeping away the old and negative energies.

It was later adopted by the African Americans in the South.

Answer 4

The history comes from the slave era when plantation owners would not allow slaves to legally marry. Thus they began jumping the broom to signify their union.