11 Extremely Strange Wedding Traditions
As a Maui wedding photographer, I am always hearing about wedding traditions from around the world. Working in Maui, the island has it’s own wedding traditions to include: chanting, conch shell and lei exchange. In doing some research, I discovered that there are some pretty strange wedding traditions besides what we have her in Maui. I hope you enjoy these.
Marriage has its many traditions that have taken root eons ago. However, for every wonderful tradition that’s in place, there is usually a truly strange wedding tradition as well. They can be from the really disgusting to something really odd. In some cultures, these are a thing of the past, and yet some are still active today. In any case, here are 11 extremely strange wedding traditions that will leave you, well wondering.
Blackening Of The bride
In Scotland, the tradition of “blackening the bride” takes place sometime before the bride’s wedding date. She is pummeled by her friends with almost anything deemed disgusting and then, while covered in stench, is tied to a tree. The adage is that if she can withstand this, she handle just about anything; marriage included.
Save The Date
A group of people that live in the Chinese inner parts of Mongolia, known as the Daur, believe that to finalize their wedding date, they need to hold a knife together as they kill a baby chick. Afterwards they will gut it and inspect the chick’s liver. If it looks good, they can set the date. However, if it looks bad, they keep killing chicks until they find a good liver.
Sad Times On Arbor Day
Women in India that are born as Mangliks, which astrologically speaking, is when Saturn and Mars are under the 7th house at the same time, are convinced they are cursed and therefore chances are great that their husbands will die of an early death. To break this curse, the woman must be married to a tree first, then have the tree destroyed.
Holding Out For Love
In the Northern part of Borneo, newlyweds in the tribes within the Tidong community are required to be confined in their home. During this time, they cannot urinate or empty their bowels for three days and nights. Are air fresheners allowed on day four?
Mucous In Masai
In Kenya’s Masai tribe, before leaving the village with her new groom, the father of the bride will bless is daughter by spitting on her breasts and head.
Don’t Drink The Water
In the past, after a wedding ceremony ended in France, the couple’s friends would gather all the leftover trash that they thought would be disgusting and place it in a toilet bowl. The couple would then have to drink from it. In modern times, when this is done, chocolate is used in lieu of the trash. However, the couple is still drinking chocolate water from a toilet!
A Little William Tell In All Of Us
In the culture of Yugur, which is a Chinese minority ethnicity, prior to their wedding, the groom will shoot the bride three times with a bow and arrow. The arrowheads are removed first, but still the brunt force still has to hurt. After the three arrows have rammed the bride, he will pick up the arrows and break them. This symbolizes that their love will last forever.
The Human Rug
When a wedding comes to an end on the French Polynesia island of Maruesas, it is common for the bride’s relatives to lay face down in the dirt side by side, thus appearing to look like a human rug for the new bride and groom to walk over as they leave the ceremony.
Too Much Motherly Love?
Throughout Africa, there are some villages that still practice the teaching of consummation. Therefore, it’s not uncommon for an older woman, such as an elder or the bride’s mother, to go with the new couple on their first night together as husband and wife, so she can teach the bride the proper way to have intimate relations. Can you imagine if this was you and your mom?
Three Men Walk Into A Bar
In the African Congo, the bride and groom are forbidden to smile or laugh during their wedding ceremony. If they do, then it appears that they are not taking their marriage seriously. So instead of objecting to the marriage, and you want to ruin the wedding, just do or say something to get them to crack a smile.
Bringing Sexy Back?
In the country of Mauritania, located in the Northwestern part of Africa, it is much more common for the full-figured, or heavy set, woman to marry than it is for a woman of a more slender build. Therefore women often go to camps where they actually gain weight, sometimes in excess, so that they can find a mate and marry.