There are different traditions in different countries of the world. While traveling, you may come across some that will cause culture shock. Let’s see what wedding traditions can really surprise you. Read below – traditions that look wild.
China: the bride’s sobbing
Do you think a wedding should be pure joy? Chinese girls will disagree with you: they associate weddings exclusively with tears. Exactly two weeks before the ceremony, the bride closes herself in a special room… and starts sobbing! The more tears, the happier the family life.
To make sure the result is guaranteed, she is later joined by her mother, friends and close relatives. They all sing special songs that should touch the bride’s heart and make her cry even more.
Scotland: rotten shower
In some regions of Scotland, there is a custom of “blackening the bride” – a girl is doused from head to toe with a foul-smelling mixture of rancid food, beer, kefir, mayonnaise and eggs. Then she, accompanied by friends, is sent to visit all the pubs in the city.
It is believed that after such humiliation, the future wife is no longer afraid of any ugly deeds on the part of her husband. The less presentable the bride’s appearance and the smell emanating from her, the happier the fiance’s relatives are.
Scroll through the gallery and admire the most expensive and chic wedding dresses of the stars:
Japan: three wedding dresses
In Japan, everything depends on the wealth of the bride’s family: if the income of the parents is impressive, she needs to choose at least three wedding dresses. Three kimonos – and each requires a new hairstyle and makeup. The tradition is followed by those who believe that it will help make family life diversified.
First, the bride tries on a long white kimono and complements it with accessories of the same color. White symbolizes the girl’s spiritual purity and innocence.
At the banquet, the bride changes into a floral kimono, and then into a European dress for the final photo shoot and dance with the groom.
Ireland: shuffle dance
In the Caucasus, the bridegroom’s friends can kidnap the bride, but in Ireland the forest fairies are suspected of doing this. On the wedding day, the bride is strictly forbidden to take her feet off the floor while dancing – otherwise the fairies can kidnap her and hide her from the groom forever.
India: bridegroom kidnapping
It is all about kidnapping again – this time, it is quite real rather than fabulous. In the Indian state of Bihar, a girl who wants to get married can find a suitable candidate for the wedding and organize the kidnapping of the bridegroom she likes. There is no option for him to “refuse to marry”: he must agree to the wedding ceremony.
Mauritania: fat brides
This is an Islamic state, where love for plus-size women has been triumphant for centuries: girls with size XS are called ugly because it is believed that the bigger the bride is, the healthier the future children will be.
In some regions, parents send girls to special schools from the age of 10. They make sure that girls eat fatty foods there: they eat meat and cereals, washed down with camel milk. Those who prefer regular education to such a school are locked up for two weeks before the wedding – they are forced to eat high-calorie food for days and are restricted in movement.
Indonesia: teeth filing
In most countries, entering adulthood is symbolized by the loss of innocence. Quite surprisingly, in the island of Bali, a visit to the dentist is credited with similar properties. Newlyweds have their teeth filed there – six pieces each for the bride and groom. This ritual symbolizes the creation of a new unit of society and the financial separation of a young family from their parents. It is also believed that by filing teeth, the husband and wife get rid of the adultery temptation.
Kenya: a husband in a skirt
Kenya cannot be called a country of victorious feminism, but local residents have a rather peculiar understanding of how hard it is for married women.
Immediately after the wedding, a man is forced to put on a woman’s attire and do housework – this is how he spends the first month of family life, so that later his whole life he will not yield to the temptation to devalue household chores.
Libya: pre-wedding vacation
To celebrate the wedding of a friend or relative, a Libyan resident will have to take a short vacation, as the ceremony takes seven whole days. On the sixth day, the newly-made husband presents his wife with a basket of gifts, among which there must be oil perfume.
With the help of her friends and her mother, she rubs them in the heel – this unusual tradition is practiced in order to have the husband “henpecked” and make sure he will not abandon his wife.
Rwanda: domestic violence
After marriage, Rwandan men also have a difficult time: their wives are allowed to beat, bite and scratch their husband as much as they please. However, only during the first two weeks of marriage. This is done for the young wife to run out of all anger and for the couple to live a happy life.