Wedding rituals and traditions highly vary among cultures, religions, countries, and social classes. It would suffice to say that these traditions and ritual means a lot for believers and are at times romantic or funny or amusing. But not all of these rituals can be categorized as romantic, funny or amusing. Some can be crazy, bizarre, disgusting, cruel, torturous and what not!! So here are some of the weirdest and freakish wedding rituals and traditions.
The Blackening the Bride – Scotland
Blackening of the bride is an ancient Scottish wedding tradition which happens before the marriage takes place. This is a very nasty ritual where the bride has to pelt with trash from head to toe by her friends and family. This food trash can be anything like spoiled milk, rotten fish, tar or anything which comes under the category of crap. This ritual of covering the bride is carried out to ward off evil spirits and to make the bride strong enough to face any humiliation and problems after the marriage.
The Mandatory Tears of Bride – China
Marriage is a pretty sensitive event, especially for the bride as she has to start a completely new journey, which many times bring tears to the brides. But this crying goes to another level when talking about the people of Tujia in China. In Tujia, it is mandatory for the bride to cry for every one hour for a month before the day of marriage. In fact, the other women of the family are also encouraged to join the bride in this crying fest. Hence by the end of the month, every other female of the house ends up crying with the bride. This is thought to be an expression of joy as all women cry in different tones.
A Big, Fat Mauritanian Bride – Mauritania
In Mauritania, a large, an oversize wife, is said to bring good luck and signify prosperity in a marriage. Hence, Mauritian women are often force-fed in order to turn them fatter for their wedding. This sometimes ends up causing the brides endless illness and health problems down the line.
A Whale’s Tooth for Marriage – Fiji
In Fiji, it is important for men to find an unusual gift before they can ask for a woman’s hand in marriage. This unusual gift means: Before asking for the hand of his lady love, the groom is bound to present he would be father-in-law with a whale’s tooth.
A Chicken’s Liver for Date – China
In order to select the date for the marriage, the bride and groom are required to take the life of a baby chick while holding the knife together. They then need to inspect the liver of the chicken & the date is then decided by the appearance of the chicken’s liver. If the liver has an unfortunate or bad appearance, then they must continue killing the chickens until they find a satisfactory one. This tradition is carried out by the people of Duar in China.
No Bathroom Breaks – Indonesia
The Indonesian Tidong, the community has various sweet wedding traditions that involve wooing a bride with love songs. But there are some traditions which borderline with plain cruel torture. After the wedding, the bride and groom are exempted from using the bathroom for three days for which they are even supervised. Those who somehow gain a chance and go ahead to expel their bodily waste in those three days are believed to take on terrible luck, which can lead to infidelity, a broken marriage and even the death of a child at a young age.
Money Dance – Greece
Greek weddings are famous for two things, food, and dance, and hence it is expected from them to creative about it. Therefore, there is a very special dance named the money dance is performed at a Greek wedding. In that, the bride and groom are given gifts in the form of cold hard cash. The danced is commenced by the couple moving slowly with a handkerchief and then one by one, guests will come up and pin money directly onto their garments. The tradition begins with the parents approaching the couple first to give their gifts and then the rest of the wedding guests join in swinging the party in full force.
Marry the Tree to Mars Bear Women – India
It is supremely customary to know the astrological compatibility of the bride as well as the groom in India, even before their engagement. If the woman is of ‘mars-bearing’ or if she has the 1, 4, 7, 8, or 12th houses filled with Mars ruling planets they are deemed as Manglik. Manglik is a term that implies bad luck but only if you’re a woman. In fact, it is believed that being Manglik implies that a woman will bring early death to her husband. And In order to rip off this ‘untouchableness,’ a woman is married to either a banana or a peepal tree. Today this practice is has been termed as illegal in modern India as it perpetuates a lack of women’s rights in the country and fortifies the caste system.
Kissing the Bridegroom – Sweden
Kissing is mandatory on the day of the wedding. But here we are not talking about the mandatory bride and groom kiss. We are talking about the guests who might be lucky enough to plant a kiss on the bride and the groom. At the wedding ceremony, as per the traditions, the groom needs to disappear for some time during the part of the ceremony for any reason. Then, the all unmarried young men are given the opportunity to kiss the bride. This, the same goes for the groom and unmarried young female guests. An extremely unique wedding tradition without any doubt.
Beat the Groom’s feet – South Korea
Korean tradition dictates that the groom has to get his feet beaten with fish or a cane or a dried yellow corvina which is sort of fish before his first night as a married man. The groom’s friends remove his shoes and tie his feet together. They then lift his legs off the ground and start beating the soles of his feet. This tradition in an act of making the groom stronger before his first night. Though this act is painful, it is more fun and amusing and holds an important place in Korean culture.
