Italian wedding customs in the Roman Empire. |
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Italian food customs in weddings date back to
ancient Roman food traditions.
ancient Roman food traditions.
Here we look at foods in Italy past and present, and how your own wedding reception could benefit.
Ancient Roman food and the wedding feast :
what happened?
Once the formalities of the ancient Roman marriage ceremony were over, the wedding party would begin the meal and the evening celebration, exactly as weddings do today.
The meal took place in the bride's home, where the ceremony had also been held, but there's evidence that it was paid for by the bridegroom and his family.
Italian wedding customs and ancient Roman food.
“It is around the table that friends understand best
the warmth of being together.”
the warmth of being together.”
This old Italian proverb was as true in Roman times as it is now and gives a clue about how important the wedding feast was, and still is.
The meal would be an elaborate one, and is likely to have taken several hours to eat. The food was accompanied by entertainment : singing, dancing, juggling, music, poetry, magicians - they were all as important a part of Italian wedding customs in the Roman Empire as they are now.
Ancient Roman food : the wedding menu.
Although there are no remaining wedding menus from ancient Italy, Italian food customs in general are rooted in ancient culture so we can make some assumptions about how wedding meals would be conducted.
And we do have a very clear idea of exactly what ancient Roman food was available.
Dinner ('cena') was divided into three : 'gustus' or appetisers, 'cena', the main course, and 'secunda' or dessert.
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Ancient Roman food : appetisers.
The early Roman diet consisted of meat, wild fruits, nuts and some fish. Appetisers would be made up mainly of fruit and nuts and would include, for example, melon drizzled with honey, pear soufflé (made with eggs), seafood cooked with leeks in white wine, and white fish cooked with raisins.
Those dishes might sound a little strange to modern day tastes, but appetisers would include other foods in Italy with which we are more familiar : olives, grapes, dates and bread.
Italian wedding food : the main course.
The most common, everyday meats in ancient Rome were pork, goat, chicken, grouse and rabbit, all of which were bred for food and therefore relatively cheap. Because they were small animals they were also eaten quickly - remember, the ancient Romans did not have refrigerators to preserve food!
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To accompany those main dishes would come garden produce including artichokes, beans, asparagus, beets, onions, fennel and, of course, garlic.
Italian food customs : dessert.
If you're expecting cake and sticky toffee pudding - forget it! Italian food customs today don't really do much in the way of desserts, and the ancient Romans were even less keen.
Desserts at ancient Roman weddings consisted of fruit and nuts. Grapes, apples, pears, plums, quince, all of which were abundant and cheap, and later, peaches, apricots, cherries and pomegranates. Oranges did not exist in ancient Rome, being introduced to Europe from Asia as late as the fifteenth century.
As for nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts and pistachios were eaten with dried fruit - and given to guests as a gift to take home.
And that's where the modern tradition of giving wedding favors comes from.
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Italian wedding customs : drinks.
Fruits available to the Romans meant that drink from those fruits was always plentiful and cheap. Apple and pear cider, cordials from aromatic plants, fermented honey and water and of course, wine, were the most popular.
The wine was made not only from grapes but also from dates and mulberries, and despite the popular perception of rowdy, drunken Roman parties wine was rarely drunk undiluted - it was considered uncivilised to do so.
How to introduce ancient Italian food into your own wedding reception.
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More about ancient Roman weddings.
Ancient Roman food to our home page about Italian culture.
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