When brides wore swastikas for good luck on their wedding day

A BRIDE wearing a swastika for good luck? It seems incredible today, but it was not uncommon in the 1920s and 1930s before the rise of Hitler gave the symbol a sickening new meaning.

Bride from 1920s carrying swastika, sent in by John Keane from Montrose.

IF you’re sifting through old family memorabilia from before World War II and stumble across a swastika or two, don’t be alarmed.

Bridal gown from 1930s featuring embroidered reverse swastika

This ancient religious symbol — both left-facing and right-facing versions — represented good luck before Hitler adopted it in the lead-up to WWII and it became synonymous with the Nazis’ atrocities.

Joan Withers, of Mornington, says our previous story on Echuca’s Swastika Orchestra of the 1930s and the original meaning of the symbol solved a longstanding family mystery for her.

She had long wondered about a photo (above) she has of her mother, Margaret, as a bridesmaid in the early ’30s.

“The bride had a beautiful wedding gown and right out around the front (on the train) was a swastika embroidered into the lace,” Joan says.

“It’s always fascinated me, and now I know why it was there.”

Bride from 1920s carrying swastika

A swastika also features in this wedding photo (above), believed to be from the late 1920s, of John Keane’s great-aunt Isobel’s wedding, showing his late mother on the far right, probably as maid of honour.

The bride is carrying a bouquet, a horseshoe — and a swastika.

“Our thoughts are that it was just something you bought from a bridal shop as a good-luck charm,” says John, of Montrose.

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