The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-05-15
WHY OLD SHOE GIVES LUCK.

When any one embarks on new
undertaking, such as departing totake
up a new post or going on the anx-
ious journey of application for place
of any kind, it is common and pleas
ant custom for relatives and friends
to throw an old shoe or slipper after
the traveller for luck, says the Chica-
go Journal. 1t must not be new
one, nor must the slipper be unworn,
or the token of good fortune is nil.
Though common, this custom is not
observed so much for ordinary occa-
sions of life as it is for weddings. At
nearly every wedding, when the new
ly married couple start on the honey
moon, some relative or friend stands
ready to throw the old slipper or shoe
after the carriage.
Only those who have had all the
claim on the bride hitherto should
throw the slipper if its right luck
token is to be observed. The nearest
friend of the bride, her father, or the
one who gave her away, should be
the shoe thrower. And the shoe is
thrown not at or after the bride, but
directly at the bridegroom. 1t is for
him in reality, and is, in effect, a
token of the transference of his wife
from her friends to his care.
Just as the wedding ring is the sur.
vival of the badge of servitude, the
owners mark for his slave, so is the
old shoe a survival of an old usage
that has come down to us from an
cient customs in Eastern lands.
When possession of land or of any
thing else was yielded up by an own
er to buyer the transference of the
former owners shoe to the new owner
was mark of exchange.
When the possession given up was
of old standing this was implied by
the giving over of shoe that had
been worn /; hence the reason for old
shoes, not new ones, thrown after
bridal carriages.
In Eastern lands if man wished
to give token that he claimed land
and meant to occupy it he threw his
shoe upon It. Not a new shoe, but
one taken from his foot. This was
the symbol of ownership. Ifthe first
owner meant to dispute possession he
cast the shoe back.
The latter reason is why it is un-
lucky for either the bride or bride
groom to pick up the shoe if it should
fall near them and throw it back.
Always has it been considered token
of bad luck to do this, yet sometimes
in ignorance of this it has been done,
of course playfully.
By this custom the bridegroom is
really refusing to take up his new
possession. The shoe means occu-
pancy, and he should keep 1t.
If in that old Eastern time man
delivered over his shoe as sign that
he resigned possession and the new
owner refused to take it then he was
rejecting the land or other purchase
tacitly. The matter was perfectly
understood, and the shoe stood in
stead of lawsuits.
To this day Eastern people take
off their shoes as mark of reverence
and as a token that they dare not
take occupancy where they stand.
The thrower of the old shoe ought to
stand barefoot to keep the luck en-
blem intact, and the shoe should GER
tainly be one of his own.
The bride begins a new life. She
should enter her husbands house in
new shoes, therefore. Invariably she
does so, not always knowing any rea-
sons underlying this, save that she
has everything new for her wedding.
But she would be unlucky on this
day if she were married in old shoes.