I think it was something to two with being poor, and not able to afford a proper Marriage . ?
2006-12-29 07:52:43 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
I always understood it to be an unmarried relationship but I looked it up and this is what i found
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/9/messages/383.html
2006-12-31 03:53:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The origin is 'Slavery' They were not allowed to marry legally and because they were from different countries didn't have a common marriage ceremony to use. They stepped over a broom together in front of witnesses to show that they were a couple and it led to the expression 'living over the broom' meaning unwed in the eyes of the Law or Church. To them it WAS a proper marriage!!
2006-12-29 17:04:45 · answer #2 · answered by willowGSD 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My grandma was really superstitious about brooms and said if an unwed girl or woman stepped over one she would have a child before marriage, I have heard of your version too, been too poor for a proper marriage so they stepped over a broom/brush, hence living over the brush, have a great new year.
2006-12-30 20:45:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have often heard the Phrase < Living over the Brush > it means living together without the Marriage being Solemnised in Church or otherwise living in Sin. It comes from England so my Cousins from there tell me , it is used quite often. I know not the Original
Source.
2006-12-29 16:23:55 · answer #4 · answered by janus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe something from pre-christian europe, banished from custom and memory by the church. Seems a bit witchy-nature worship. Hazel broom to represent a tree maybe. All the different trees had their social significance. Formal marriage sometimes only for rich and titled where land and inheritance involved. 'It's a wise child that knows its own mother' - and amongst ancient peoples (who credited 'god given' social and religious authority in women), it was important to be sure of blood lines, of parentage. As Dr Johnson had it (the dictionary dude), adultery in a woman was more serious than in a man, who might 'from mere wantonness of appetite steal privately to her chamber-maid', because the uncertainty of lineage and its implications for property inheritance, constituted 'the essence of the crime'.
2006-12-29 19:23:44 · answer #5 · answered by eyvind 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jumping the broomstick... the maid of honor sweeps with the broom behind the couple to clear away all bad history and they can start anew, the couple jumps the broom to land in their new life together.
Shakespeare had it in Midsummer's Night Dream. ( I think) So it was around for a long time before that.
2006-12-29 18:13:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes your right ...that's all there is to it couldn't afford a legal marriage ...so it was a bond in love and faith and worked was called common law but now legally not per say so to speak ,,,dumb bring it back to h*** with legal it is legal in the eye of the beholder ........love who can knock it
2007-01-02 20:50:45 · answer #7 · answered by bobonumpty 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a brush symbolizes sweepin g away the old ready for the new
2007-01-02 15:09:23 · answer #8 · answered by fay k 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its a Scottish Gypsy custom. its part of a wedding ceremony.the rest of it ,you dont want to go there.
2006-12-29 15:59:22 · answer #9 · answered by tallulaberry 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i believe it was originaly a slave(excuse the expression) custom. i am not sure of its exact meaning though.
2006-12-29 16:10:11 · answer #10 · answered by racer 51 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋