Throwing an Old Shoe
The custom of throwing an old shoe after a person is still, in many rural districts, believed to propitiate success, as in servants seeking or entering upon situations, or about to be married. In Scripture, “the receiving of a shoe was an evidence and symbol of asserting or accepting dominion or ownership; the giving back the shoe was the symbol of rejecting or resigning it.” Hence the throwing of a shoe after a bride was a symbol of renunciation of dominion over her by her father or guardian; and the receipt of the shoe by the bridegroom, even if accidental, was an omen that the authority was transferred to him.