Odd Wedding Customs
09 Sep 2009
Getting married is a strange custom in itself but then some people take the ceremony to even greater extremes! While we have expensive weddings, diamond engagement engagement rings, and expensive gifts, other cultures have things that set them apart.
In Scotland they "Blacken the Bride" as part of the hen night and bachelorette rituals. Nevertheless, the bride to be is pelted with foul detritus from the refrigerator usually eggs, rotten tomatoes and the like and is then paraded around town, usually taking in a few bars along the way.
The Germans have a reputation for being efficient and humorless, and perhaps the tradition of bride and groom sawing a log really underlines the stereotype. It is a custom for a log, as in tree log, to be placed on a saw horse and man and wife to engage in a 2-man saw competition with themselves. The idea is that they are going to have to work together and the act of sawing the log together signifies this.
Back to the Germans, another strange custom involves the guests - they smash all the items of crockery in the place! The bride and groom then have to sweep the entire mess up!!The point is that the spouses will be working together from now on and this reinforces the bond - they will be cleaning up each other's mess from now on.
One last German custom is to kidnap the bride and hide her, usually in a bar, the groom and his cronies then have to go find her and of course, have a drink along the way.This practice has been known to end poorly.
Indian weddings are held over several days and the bride is made to feel like a princess.One crazy custom is to take the groom's shoes when he removes them at the altar - and the bride's family has to steal them while his family tries to protect them. This can and is taken to great lengths and results in numerous fraternity-style situations and even worse, if the bride's family are successful at stealing the shoes, the groom must pay whatever price they ask to get them back!
The fun-loving Swedes have the weird custom of kissing the bride, which doesn't sound very weird but it is when you understand the circumstances. If the bride goes to the restroom, the guests can steal a kiss from her by lining up outside the restroom doors and when she emerges she has to give the line-up a kiss each!
The French have a custom known as “Chiverie”; during the evening the guests try to startle and surprise the couple by banging pots and pans together and generally making loud noises, often using brass band instruments.The bride and groom have to emerge from their love nest to wait on their guests.It's amazing they have the chance to have babies.
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