10 Bizarre Origins Of Everyday Traditions That Will Blow Your Mind

6. Bridesmaids At Weddings

The Tradition Today: Let€™s face it: weddings are just weird. But, again, the tradition of bridesmaids is hardly the strangest; today, bridesmaids, similarly to their groomsmen counterparts, are around to help out the bride on or before the wedding, mostly by wearing dresses that are worse than hers. Where It Came From: Back in the days of Ancient Rome, when weddings had to have 10 witnesses as per Roman law, being a bridesmaid came with a somewhat greater sacrifice. Not only were they made to wear the same dress as the bride, but they did so in order to confuse evil spirits from plaguing the happy couple, because the spirits would now not know which woman was getting married. Without these decoys, the wedding would be ruined by these malignant forces with apparently poor eyesight €“ so would the life of an innocent bridesmaid, perhaps, after being mistaken for the target of these wedding-crashing spirits, but that€™s the price we pay for nuptial bliss.