Oshún Bridal Bath

This elaborate female ritual of purification, preparation, and love is an ancient rite that exists across cultures in various forms, including Africa and the Afro-Diaspora. 

Many ancient cultures around the world employ a Bridal Bath Ritual the night before the wedding.  It is a joyous occasion for the women in the Bride's immediate circle to literally bathe her in love and luxury, as well as an opportunity for the Bride's female elders to offer their sage relationship advice and BLESSINGS for marital harmony and fruitfulness. 

This elaborate female ritual of purification, preparation, and love is an ancient rite that exists across cultures in various forms, including Africa and the Afro-Diaspora.  

Due to the tragic legacy of slavery in the Afro-Atlantic World, some vital West African cultural traditions were lost in the Diaspora.  Among those that were reclaimed during the cultural and spiritual revolution of the 1960's and 1970's was an ancient cultural practice that was prevalent in the precolonial era, the Yoruba Bridal Bath or "ìwè ìyàwó".

This particular tradition, along with the Yoruba Baby Naming Ceremony, was reintroduced to African American practitioners of the  Afro-Cuban Yoruba Religion in New York City by Baba Lloyd Weaver and his wife Iya Stephanie Weaver. 

The Bridal Bath consists of sacred herbs and barks, flowers, honey, perfumes, oils, and other luxurious elements that promote spiritual purification, emotional healing, self-love, fruitfulness, and heightened sexuality in preparation for the wedding ceremony the following day.  Each element of the Bridal Bath is bestowed with a blessing for the Bride and her impending union. 

This is a deeply spiritual and meaningful pre-wedding ritual for Afro-descended brides in the West, and it is adaptable for brides of all cultural backgrounds.  So much more than a "bath" in a physical sense, this ritual is a re-enactment of the spiritual purification, loving care, and preparation that our ancestors employed.

Oshún’s Spiritual Bath Tea for Love & Prosperity is the perfect foundational ingredient for your Wedding Eve Bridal Bath Ritual, as each of its ingredients is sacred to the Yoruba Goddess Oshún and has been blessed and spiritually activated by a Priestess of Oshún.  

Oshún is the ancient riverine deity who is the divine patroness of Love (particularly self-love), Beauty, Cleanliness, Prosperity, Marriage, Intimacy, Fertility, and all of the aspects of human endeavor that are perceived as sweet and productive.  

Oshún is the Goddess who cleans our souls, the owner of the sweet waters that give sustenance and healing, she is the river where we are cleansed and reborn.

It is Oshún who binds unions, families, and communities together.  Let Oshún bless your impending marriage by incorporating this Bridal Bath Ritual into your wedding preparations.