Weddings can be weird. Though the practice has persisted around the world for untold millennia, the customs surrounding marriage range from practical to downright bizarre. If you’ve been feeling down over having to postpone your nuptials due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it can help to find reasons to smile. To give yourself a break from the blues, take a look at these funny and amusing wedding traditions. You might not be able to walk down the aisle just yet, but you can get a few laughs out of how far people will go when tying the knot.
Practice Makes Perfect
Tears at a wedding are totally normal. The event can be emotionally powerful for people, whether they are feeling joy for the couple’s future or a bit of nostalgia over personal romances. Still, one practice of the Tujia in China takes the idea of crying to new heights. A bride who cries at her wedding is said to bring fortune to her relationship and her family. To ensure tears, brides must practice crying for roughly an hour a day in the month leading to the event.
As a show of solidarity, friends and family will join with the bride in her ritual. By dedicating time to tears in advance, the bride and her associates increase the odds of the wedding being a wet one. The next time you feel yourself overcome with sadness about your own postponed wedding, look at it as a way of encouraging good luck and a prosperous future.
Stolen Kisses
In America, there is a common tradition at weddings where guests encourage the couple to kiss by tapping their champagne glasses with silverware. While kisses are a common sight at weddings, one Swedish tradition puts an interesting spin on things. Should the bride or groom leave the reception hall at any point, the guests rush into a line to kiss the spouse who has been left behind. Once the bride or groom returns, the guests must disperse until another opportunity appears. Stealing kisses is a silly game that keeps the mood of the event light and fun.
Forget Hot Lava, the Floor Is People
A popular children’s game around the world is “hot lava.” In this game, the only rule is that you can’t touch the floor and have to navigate around a space from object surface to object surface. While not exactly the same, one wedding tradition in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia does focus on transforming the floor. Though the practice is not as common as it was in the past, some weddings around the Marquesas Islands would end with a “human carpet” as a sign of good luck to the couple.
The family of the bride would lay facedown on the ground and form a living carpet. The couple would then walk along the backs of the family members to leave the venue. This is a tradition your own family might not be too thrilled to explore at your event.
Go Home, Mom
An overbearing mother can be difficult to deal with when planning a wedding. Unfortunately, in some traditions from across Africa, the situation is a bit more intense. One custom involves the mother of the bride or groom following the couple back to their wedding bed. There, the mother must explain to the couple how to properly spend the night together as a married unit. If you thought the “birds and bees” conversation with your parents in your youth was uncomfortable, imagine having to deal with this discussion on your wedding night.
While all wedding customs have a purpose, some can seem a bit bizarre when looked at from the outside. The next time you’re feeling down about the future, take a moment to cheer yourself up by thinking about all of the funny ways people act in order to get married.