over the world, people practice numerous wedding customs that have been passed on through many generations. Although each has a long history of meaning and significance, many just seem strange and out of place in today’s culture. Are they just opportunities to playfully scam the bride and groom?
Check out some of the historical wedding customs that are still practiced today, much to the intrigue and wonderment of its audience.
Blackening the Bride
In the Scottish pre-wedding tradition of “Blackening the Bride,” The bride is taken by surprise and covered with foul substances, such as eggs, various sauces, feathers, and well you name it…
The bride to be, officially blackened, is the then paraded around town, and of course a few pubs, for all to see.
Filmed in Fraserburgh and Rosehearty, in the north east of Scotland in 2007. A bride to be is subjected to a traditional ‘blackening’, one of the strangest of all pre-wedding traditions.
Kidnapping the Bride Also in Germany, though more popular in the smaller villages, is the tradition of kidnapping the bride. Friends of both the bride and groom will steal the bride and hide her somewhere, and the groom has to look for her. The groom usually begins by visiting the local pub and inviting people to join him on the search.
Log Sawing - Yet another German wedding tradition is the log sawing. After the wedding ceremony, the newlywedded couple must work together to saw a log in half. How neatly and quickly they do it is supposed to predict how they will be able to work together as a couple.
Stealing the Groom's Shoes - In India, the groom must take off his shoes prior to the wedding ceremony. His family is solely responsible for guarding and hiding the shoes from the bride's family, who are supposed to try to steal the shoes. Supposedly this tradition is taken very seriously, and both families will go to great lengths to fulfill their duties. If the bride's family succeeds in stealing the shoes, the groom has to pay them the amount of money requested to get them back.
Kissing the Bride & Groom - If the bride disappears from a Swedish wedding reception, all of the women line up to kiss the groom in her absence. The same goes for the groom--if he leaves, all the men run up to kiss the bride.
Banging Pots & Pans - The French's famous post-wedding tradition is known as Chiverie, where the family and friends of the newlyweds gather outside of where ever the couple is residing the night of the wedding. They then bang pots, pans, and blow horns creating a ruckus to startle the couple. The couple is supposed to go outside still wearing their wedding attire and provide drinks and refreshments to the pranksters.
The wedding favors tradition, however, aren't always used throughout the world - it is most popular in North America and Europe. Seems like there are a couple of really crazy wedding customs all over the world that are just, well...out of this world
Thursday, July 7, 2011
World’s Weirdest Wedding Customs
4:05 AM
Tribune
Broken Dishes, Kidnapping the Bride, and Log Sawing
Broken Dishes
A rather interesting German tradition involves shattering a large number of dishes before the wedding and having the bride and groom cleaned it up.
It is believed that the action of cleaning up the mass collection of broken dishes, which the family and friends have worked so hard to make, will help prepare the couple for their new lives together.
It might be a little destructive but everyone seems to enjoy themselves and like most customs, bring the couple good luck.
