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BROOMS

BROOMS
 
BROOMS

A broom is a cleaning device. Usually something stiff is attached to a stick, which is used as a handle to maneuver the tool. A smaller version is referred to as the duster and is often made out of the feathers of poultry and other birds like the peacock.
Over time brooms have changed in design. Originally these were made from natural fibers and are still very much in use in India and other Asian countries. In the developing world the traditional model has been replaced by the vacuum cleaner which is just another adaptation for the same purpose – that of cleaning and sweeping.
Broom comes from the word ‘besom’ – the material from which the tool was made. The besom or broom represents the practical and spiritual as well as both the male and the female. It physically cleans an area as well as drives away negative vibrations. The handle represents the male factor while the brush is the female counterpart.
Witches fly around on brooms! This is a favorite figure in fairy tales. There is a record of this in a 1453 manuscript where a male witch, rides a broom. To become bewitched the brooms have to be greased. Brooms were also used as tools of persecution. Witches and charlatans would hide their wands to look like broomsticks so as not to be suspected. Brooms are also said to give shelter to wandering spirits.
Native culture all over the world is full of broom lore. It represents the air element and used to cleanse negative energy by circular movements. The performing priest or priestess walk clockwise tracing the tracks of the broom. The broom purifies ritual spaces. While invocations are proceeding in front of fire the broom is frequently waved to shoo away evil spirits and the concentrated smoke that makes the eyes tearful.
The broom has always found a place in literature and poetry. In the Bible, (The Parable of the Lost Coin) it is used to symbolize the work of women. Poets used it metaphorically as Emily Dickinson says that Mother Nature uses many colored brooms. Flying witches sitting on the handles of brooms is a common figure in children’s fairy stories. Walt Disney’s magic broom in the hands of Merlin multiplies into many pieces whenever it is broken.  Harry Potter series have not failed to catch on to its popularity.
An Afro-American wedding is incomplete without the broom. It is known as the custom of Jumping-the-Broom. During the days of slavery the Blacks were not allowed to marry inside the Church. Instead a broom was laid across the doorway and the couple was declared married once they jumped over it. Today the custom continues with the bride laying down the specifications of the broom. The article is later kept as a memento.
The Métis of Canada have a special broom-dance in which they show off their skills in fast footwork and quick jumping. In a baseball game brooms are taunted at the rival team as a form of insult. There is a custom of tying a broom to the masthead of a ship. It showed that the vessel was up for sale. The legend behind this is that the English naval chief displayed a broom to show that he was all geared up to give the Dutch Admiral Van Tromp a good thrashing.
The people of Ghana in West Africa used the broom not only to keep the household spotlessly clean but it was also seen as a tool for driving away evil spells. This was why it was waved over the heads of newly weds. At the end of the ceremony they would jump the broom. On the one hand the broom was a symbol for the wife’s commitment to household chores and also it pointed to the fact that whoever held the rod was the actual ruler of the home. In another interpretation it was said that whoever jumped the highest over the broom was the head of the family. No doubt it was invariably the man. In Pre-Christian days the brooms culture was very much prevalent in wedding ceremonies. The Wiccans and Roma groups practice it today. The Welsh too had their own kind of broom-stick wedding.
In Sweden there is the popular belief that during Easter Maundy and Thursday witches flies off in brooms to have a tryst with the devil at ‘Blakulla’. Halloween is still celebrated with great gusto in American and other countries. The central character in it is the witch. It comes from the Swedish word ‘wica’ which means the wise one. Rich witches rode astride horses but the poor ones had to make do with broomsticks. In Japan brooms are for sweeping away the evil. Thus brooms should always be in use but not on New Year’s Day because then the gods are invited in.  Brooms must not be allowed to sweep them away!
In Indian mythology goddess Sitala is the deity who gives protection from the scourge of small pox. She carries a broom in one of her four arms symbolizing the importance of cleanliness to ward off illness. The King of Puri, even today, sweeps the path in front of Lord Jagannath’s chariot with a golden broom during the annual monsoon festival of Rath-Yatra.
Brooms clean – but do not sweep the dust under the carpet for it to boomerang on the environment the day after tomorrow!