The flowers represent emotions and merit; they carry a message of fertility, flourishing and generosity. Superstition says that the lucky one who catches the bride's bouquet will be lucky and will be the next to get married.
It is an ancient custom that could be traced back to ancient Egypt. Egyptian brides used to carry herbs with intense aroma designed to drive away evil spirits. Over the years, the herbs were replaced by flowers.Although they tell us it could also be due to a custom that comes from the Saracens and was brought to Europe by the Crusaders. The flower that was used was the orange blossom that symbolized purity.
Although in some cultures such as the Roman or Arab, the baths were an important part of their traditions and customs of everyday life -Baths of great dimensions with different temperatures and all kinds of luxuries for the time- in the Middle Ages in Europe, it was not until the eighteenth century when the healthy habit of bathing began to be regularized.
Baths of caracalla.
Instead, in this case, everything was summarized to a simple tub in which several people were introduced at the same time or different members of a family, who kept an established order to enjoy these pleasures (First the older men, followed of the children and later the women of the family followed by the daughters) the bath water used to end up very hot and dark since everyone used it.
Wooden tub for the bathroom
If it is true that in the big cities it was already common, it was not so in the towns and other smaller communities, which for lack of means or culture dispensed with this custom.
To end the task, the church decided to enact the idea that the bath was something sinful and unnecessary, even to punish the practitioners of such "ritual".
These supported by a doctor of the time, who claimed that the toilets were the culprits of the epidemics, although they did not eliminate the custom, if they reduced it in such a way that the baths were only made in few days of the year, to be precise in May, with the arrival of the heats of the time.
This is where we find another explanation to the bride's bouquet, couples used to marry with the arrival of summer and the month of July was specifically related to the ceremonies.
The fact is that by that time the women already had a considerable body odor, which forced them to bring the bouquet of orange blossoms or similar, which besides dissimilar smell was also a symbol of the purity of the girl .
