Since the earliest recorded wedding ceremonies, guests have showered newly married couples with symbols of fertility and good luck. Although this ancient wedding ritual varies by culture, the spirited custom is filled with cheers and well wishes, whether the guests are tossing seeds, beans, herbs, coins or shoes at the couple as they walk back down the aisle or leave the reception hall. 

While couples are certainly getting creative with the types of wedding throws they offer guests, rice continues to be the most popular choice.

 As the world’s most important food source, the humble grain offers up a beautiful metaphor for the meaning of marriage. 

Cultural Origins of Throwing Rice

The tradition of throws dates back to Greek and Roman ceremonies, but tossing uncooked rice did not become common until the Middle Ages, despite the fact that the crop had been an important staple in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America for thousands of years. Today, more than 40,000 varieties thrive across the world, ranging from the deserts of Saudi Arabia to the rainforests of Brazil to the wetland plains of Japan. 

Born of a tiny seed, the life-sustaining crop symbolizes wishes for a life filled with an abundance of happiness. Carried by the wind, the falling grains are also meant to seed a prosperous path for the newlyweds. In China, rice is known as chikara, which translates to "divine grain" and is a homonym for the word "strength." In exchange for blessings upon the marriage, Hindu couples offer gifts to the gods by tossing khoi (puffed rice) into the sacred fire.

 

Newlywed Muslims are typically showered with a mixture of rice, candy and dried fruit. The tradition is also popular at Christian ceremonies, where legend holds that the number of grains stuck in the bride's hair represents the many happy years she will spend with her husband. 

False Urban Legend

Thanks to an overzealous Senator in the mid-1980s and a misinformed warning appearing in the popular Ann Landers column a decade later, a pervasive myth about the dangers of throwing rice has curtailed the custom in America. Contrary to the common belief that rice can hurt birds, the winged animals often subsist on a diet of wild grains, notes the U.S. Rice Federation. 

Still, many wedding venues have chosen to ban the grain since it is extremely difficult to clean up. Busy facilities that host multiple weddings daily tend to nix the messy confetti. Uncooked, milled rice also poses a potential hazard to humans and opens venues up to lawsuits. The small, round pebbles of rice are easily to slip on, especially when wearing treadless dress shoes, and are painful when the ping the eyes.

Designer wedding rice, which is more expensive but less dangerous since it is compressed, comes in a variety of shapes that lie flat on the ground and crush easily when stepped upon. 

A Rainbow of Colors

Although white rice is by far the most common color available, the grain naturally grows in a variety of shades, ranging from brown and black to purple and red. Some are even multicolored, offering up an ombre effect.

Black rice is most commonly found in Thailand, India and China as well as in Canada and the U.S. An intensely red variety grows in France’s Camargue region, while a less vibrant strain is highly prized in China for its curative properties. 

You can easily transform white rice to any color with a bit of food coloring or liquid watercolor paints.