6 Weirdest Wedding Traditions in the World

Here are six of the world’s most extreme wedding traditions,

South Korea: Beating the Groom’s Feet

Following their wedding ceremonies, some South Korean grooms are subjected to a certain ritual before they can leave with their new wives: the beating of their feet. His groomsmen or family members remove the groom’s shoes and bind his ankles with rope before taking turns to beat his feet with a stick or, in some cases, a dried fish. Though obviously painful, the ritual is over quickly and meant to be more amusing than an act of punishment, and apparently – as the groom is often quizzed and questioned during the act – the beating of feet is meant as a test of the newly wedded husband’s strength and character.

Kenya: Maasai Marriage Spitting

During the weddings of Kenya’s Maasai people, it is often customary for the father of the bride to spit on his daughter’s head and breasts before she leaves with her new husband. What might seem a strange, disrespectful custom to certain cultures actually makes sense within Maasai culture in which spitting is seen as a symbol of good luck and fortune. Spitting can be seen in other areas of Maasai culture too – Maasai tribesmen will spit on their hands before shaking hands with elders as a sign of respect and it is also tradition to spit on newborn Maasai babies to ward off bad luck.

Scotland: Blackening

Taking stag and hen traditions to the extreme, in parts of Scotland – usually in the Orkney Islands, Fife, Aberdeenshire and Angus – grooms and brides-to-be are subjected to a particularly grimy ritual known as ‘blackening’. Usually taking place the day before a wedding, blackening involves the bride or groom’s friends seizing the soon to be wed and covering them in a mixture of treacle, soot, feathers and flour before noisily parading them through the streets. According to the University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness, the tradition is carried out to ward off evil spirits.

India: Kumbh Vivah

In India, women born under Mangal Dosha (a Hindu astrological combination) are termed ‘Mangliks’ and thought to be cursed with bad luck, especially in marriage, where the curse is said to bring tension and even death. In order to remedy this, a kumbh vivah – a ceremony in which the woman marries either a peepal or banana tree or an idol of the god Vishnu – is performed before their actual wedding to break the curse. Bollywood actress and Miss World 1994 winner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan underwent a kumbh vivah before her marriage to fellow actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007, when https://www.casinoclic.com/fr/jeux-casino hasn’t even been launched.

Germany: Polterabend & Baumstamm Sägen

On the eve of some German weddings, guests of the couple will gather at the house of the bride and smash pieces of crockery in a tradition known as Polterabend believed to bring good luck to the bride and groom. The couple are then required to clean up the debris to demonstrate that by working together they can overcome any challenge the face in married life. A similar tradition is that of Baumstamm sägen, in which newlyweds saw a log in half in front of their guests, again symbolizing the importance of cooperation in their marriage.

China: Crying Ritual

Weddings are often an emotional affair, but in certain parts of China crying is a required part of preparation for marriage. A month before their forthcoming nuptials, Tujia brides will cry for one hour each day. Ten days into the ritual, the bride is joined by her mother and ten days after that, the bride’s grandmother joins the weeping duo and eventually other female family members will join in the cacophony of crying. Termed Zuo Tang in the western Sichuan province, the ritual is said to date back to China’s Warring States era when the mother of a Zhao princess broke down in tears at her wedding.