When you think about it, many wedding customs can seem
unusual compared to regular everyday life. I mean when else do you think about
wearing some old, new, borrowed or blue? But as strange as customs like that
can seem, there are some really strange marriage customs around the world that
top that by far. Here are five you won't believe.
1. India: Marrying a Tree
For instance, can you imagine a bride marrying a banana
tree before she can marry the groom? You heard me right. Marrying a tree! For certain
Indian brides, if you follow this marriage custom in India, you’ll realize eternal joy
with your soul mate.
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| Blackening the bride. |
2. Scotland: Blackening of the bride (and groom)
This ones a Scottish wedding tradition that
also involves a tree. Some just celebrate it by blackening the bride, but many these
days have included the groom as friends and relatives “show affection” by
dumping nasty, smelly things on them. This is done days or weeks before the
actual wedding and can include things that would make me gag. We’re talking
about spoiled food, curdled milk, even dead fish. Think of cleaning out all
those fuzzy unrecognizable leftover experiments from your refrigerator pouring
them into a bucket to turn into a slimy gruel, along with buckets of flour, dirt or whatever goo they feel like
dumping over the bride (or couple) while paraded through the streets. It’s thought
to ward off spirits and bring good luck. But that’s not all. Remember, the
tree? Well the bride is taken out for a night of drinking and then tied to a
tree. The idea behind this is that if the bride can handle this, she is ready to
face any humiliation or problems marriage brings her way.
3. Germany: Piles of broken porcelain
How often do wives wish their husbands would help
around the house more. In Germany, they have a tradition to help get the couple
working together as they clean up piles of porcelain dishes their guests
smash on the ground to ward off any evil spirits. The moral: if they work
together, the couple can handle any challenge together.
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| Piles of broken porcelain dishes to clean up. |
4. France: Chocolate, champagne and the toilet
This wedding-related custom takes place following the
reception. The bride and groom get to eat chocolate and champagne! Doesn’t
sound so bad, right? Except they have to drink and eat from a toilet bowl. Why? To
give them strength for their wedding night.
5. Indonesia: Honeymoon - 3 days housebound with no toilet
This marriage custom relates
to the honeymoon and makes a good strange marriage custom to end today’s
blog. An Indonesian honeymoon custom keeps the newlyweds housebound for three
days and nights. While that part isn’t so bad, the strange part is they cannot
use the toilet all that time. They are allowed minimal food and drink and
actually have someone watching over them! Why oh why would they do this? They believe
it will provide a happy marriage full of healthy babies!
The thing that’s interesting with these strange
marriage customs around the world are the superstitions attached to them. But really,
the reasons many of our wedding traditions exist are superstitions. After all,
wearing a wedding veil originated to hide the bride from evil spirits.
Photo credits: Mind
Midst, pxhere.com