page_title: Jumping the broom
hierarchical_section_title: Jumping the broom
caption_attribution_description: English: Caricature of a "broomstick-wedding", from a two-penny sheet by James Catnach, The Marriage Act Displayed in Cuts and Verse, London, 1822. The publication satirizes the proposed Marriage Act (known as the "Broomstick Marriage Act", "broomstick marriage" being a term for "sham marriage"). Outhwaite (1995) associates this term with the "effloresence of unregistered consensual unions" among the English and Welsh working class in the second half of the 18th century, citing a 1753 pamphlet mentioning "the Ceremonial of jumping over a Stick", and noting "Cathnach's illustrated twopenny-sheets of the 1820s carried charming drawings of broomstick weddings". R. B. Outhwaite, Clandestine Marriage in England, 1500-1850, A&amp;C Black, 1995, 139f.
context_page_description: Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom relating to a wedding ceremony where the couple jumps over a broom.
  It has been suggested that the custom is based on an 18th-century idiomatic expression for "sham marriage", "marriage of doubtful validity"; it was popularized in the context of the introduction of civil marriage in Britain with the Marriage Act 1836.
  There have also been suggestions that the expression may derive from an actual custom of jumping over a "broomstick" associated with the Romanichal Travellers of the United Kingdom, especially those in Wales.
  The custom of a marrying couple literally jumping over a broom is now most widespread among African Americans, popularized in the 1970s by the novel and miniseries Roots but originating in the mid 19th century as a practice in antebellum slavery in the United States.
context_section_description: Jumping the broom (or jumping the besom) is a phrase and custom relating to a wedding ceremony where the couple jumps over a broom. 
  It has been suggested that the custom is based on an 18th-century idiomatic expression for "sham marriage", "marriage of doubtful validity"; it was popularized in the context of the introduction of civil marriage in Britain with the Marriage Act 1836.
  There have also been suggestions that the expression may derive from an actual custom of jumping over a "broomstick" (where "broom" refers to the plant common broom rather than the household implement) associated with the Romanichal Travellers of the United Kingdom, especially those in Wales.
  The custom of a marrying couple literally jumping over a broom is now most widespread among African Americans, popularized in the 1970s by the novel and miniseries Roots  but originating in the mid 19th century as a practice in antebellum slavery in the United States.
caption: "Marrying over the Broomstick", 1822 illustration of a "broomstick-wedding" by James Catnach.[1]
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