Thirty-five incredible love and marriage customs.....

[CVT]

Thirty-five incredible love and marriage customs of the world

What my older male cousins told me just before the wedding is that I should not carry the bride gown (the cape[?]) that is touching the floor.... Let is get dirty!

Elopement was also popular with my uncles... They'd drive the girl to Los Banos or Tagaytay or anywhere far from their place for the night,- instant bride!

Thirty-five incredible love and marriage customs of the world

Love is universal, yes – but romance takes an astonishing array of forms around the world. We scoured our travel guides and picked our writers’ brains to uncover some of the world’s most fascinating dating, love and marriage customs, from sweet to downright sinister. If you’ve never wooed your beloved with a spoon, won your partner’s weight in beer or been to a spinsters’ ball, read on…

Korea's monthly Valentine's Day
Why have one day when you can have 12? Well, in Korea they don’t just celebrate Valentine’s Day on 14 February – in fact, the 14th day of every month holds a special kind of romantic significance. With days for singletons, days for forgiveness and days just to hug, there’s something to celebrate no matter what your relationship status.

Wife-carrying World Championships
Each year competitors the world over gather in the village of Sonkarjävi, Finland, to partake in this bizarre sporting event. With wife or partner (marriage isn’t a necessity) slung over the shoulder, participants get stuck into a variety of challenges and the winner receives the partner’s weight in beer as well as significant kudos.

Graveside weddings in Russia
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is Moscow‘s top destination for wedding parties, who snap photos and drink champagne while the bride and groom pay their respects by laying flowers at the grave site.

Whale's tooth gifts
Think you’ve got it hard, traipsing around the shops for that perfect wedding gift? How about this – in Fiji it’s common practice when asking for a woman’s hand in marriage that the man presents his soon-to-be father-in-law with a tabua (whale’s tooth). Because, let’s face it, it’s not real love unless you have to dive hundreds of metres beneath the ocean and go toe to fin with the world’s largest mammal.

Kidnapped brides in Kyrgyzstan
An old Kyrgyz adage foretells that tears on the wedding day bode for a happy marriage – perhaps this explains why some parents of kidnapped girls consent to the forced marriage (despite the practice being illegal since 1991). If the girl is to escape, and some do, it takes a lot of determination and courage to withstand the pressure brought to bear.

Croatia's Museum of Broken Relationships
This weird and wonderful exhibition in Zagreb, Croatia, features a quirky collection of amorous mementos and random paraphernalia (donated by people from across the globe) left behind after a break-up.

Blackening of the bride
In this (somewhat gross) pre-wedding tradition, the bride-to-be, and sometimes even her groom, are pelted with all manner of disgusting things from rotten eggs to treacle and fish and are paraded through the streets. The Scots believe this humiliation serves to better prepare a couple for married life. It certainly brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘blushing bride’!

Love padlocks in Italy
Inspired by Federico Moccia’s book and film I Want You, many people began attaching their own love padlocks to the Ponte Milvio in Rome. In what is now a worldwide phenomenon, couples attach the locks – often complete with a Sharpied proclamation of love – and throw the key into the river as a symbol of their unbreakable love and commitment to one another. However, these amorous trinkets have caused quite a controversy of late, particularly in Paris where, besides being a (somewhat poetic) eyesore, they are becoming an environmental hazard and have to be removed.

Toilet tradition in Borneo
One Bornean tribe, which boasts some of the most heart-meltingly sweet wedding traditions, also has one of the most gut-churningly gross customs. After their special day, newlyweds are not allowed to leave their own house, not even to use the bathroom. The bizarre custom of constant supervision and a restricted diet is said to bring the couple good luck in their marriage.

China's bridesmaid blockade
As if the wedding day wasn’t stressful enough, when the Chinese groom comes to fetch his bride he’s confronted by a barrage of bridesmaids blocking his entrance. After demanding red envelopes of money, the bridesmaids (and sometimes even the groomsmen) subject the groom to a series of games and physical tasks – he is forced to sing and generally teased to prove his love.

The tragic myth of Imilchil Marriage Festival
Set against the mystery and romance of the Atlas Mountains, legend tells the story of two star-crossed lovers forbidden to see each other. In a Romeo-and-Juliet-esque twist of fate, the heartbroken couple drowned in their own tears, forcing their families to reconcile and establish what’s now known as Morocco‘s Imilchil Marriage Festival. Each year feasting, flirting and frivolity is the backdrop for local tribespeople to socialise and potentially meet their future partner.

Juliet's balcony in Verona, Italy
Step back in time into the greatest love story ever. Each year thousands flock to Verona’s Casa di Giulietta, a 14th-century house believed to have belonged to the Capulets (never mind that they were all fictional characters), to add their amorous graffiti and notes of adoration to the courtyard walls where once fair Juliet was wooed by her Romeo.

Step inside a courting hut
Think you had cool parents growing up? Think again. In a revolutionary parenting style, some African tribes provide their daughters with ‘courting huts’ to entertain potential suitors away from the parents’ gaze. A similar custom exists in Cambodia, where unmarried teens are even encouraged to use these huts to explore multiple partners, both socially and ***ually, all in a quest to find that one true love.

Romance written in a chicken liver
We’ve all heard of cutting the cake, but cutting the chicken? The Daur people of China have a tradition for couples who become engaged to dissect a chicken and inspect its liver. If the liver is a healthy shape, this is seen as a good omen and a date can be set. If not, the couple must keep searching for that prophetic liver.

Tears of joy in China
It’s definitely acceptable to get a little teary at the wedding, but a month before might be overkill. However, for China’s Tujia people it’s customary for the bride-to-be to begin weeping for an hour a day one month before the wedding. Sometime after, her mother joins in, and so on until all the women of the family are shedding a habitual tear. Despite the tears, this is a joyous celebration and it’s said that the different sounds of the women crying are almost like a song.