Jumping the broom
![](/Images/godic/202501/21/Catnach_broomstick-wedding_18223456.jpg")
![A couple jumping the broom (photograph of a 2011 wedding in California)](/Images/godic/202501/21/Jumping_the_Broom20113456.jpg")
Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom relating to a wedding ceremony where the couple jumps over a broom. 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.