Have you ever heard that in Africa it's customary to beat the groom with sticks before the wedding, or that in Kenya the groom must wear women's clothes for a month, and that in India you can easily marry a tree?
There are so many amazing and even shocking wedding traditions in the world that it's sometimes hard to believe such things could exist in reality. Nevertheless, they exist, and they aren't even embarrassing for the people of any given country.
Although many wedding rites have long been forgotten, some are still reverently performed by the bride and groom in the hope that this will make their family life happier. Of course, as civilized people, we don't believe in all of this and take sole responsibility for family happiness upon ourselves, but when we learn about the "tests" brides and grooms undergo in other countries, we may be able to take a more relaxed view of local wedding traditions.
If you don't like the tradition of preparing wedding tables with a huge amount of food arranged in three rows, you might be interested to know that the Bedouins "served" a whole camel on the wedding table, roasted whole. Can you imagine that?! But that's not the most surprising thing. The camel was stuffed with roasted lamb, the chickens with fish, and the fish with eggs. What a dish!!! Not like our schnitzels, cold cuts, and stuffed cabbage rolls!
For those who are annoyed that relatives take everything into their own hands and decide how the wedding ceremony should be conducted, who to invite, etc., take comfort in the fact that we don't live among the Australian Aborigines. They didn't impose anything on anyone; they simply went bride-hunting, in the truest sense of the word.
The groom-to-be spent a few days chasing his bride, then crept up to her, hit her on the head with his club, and dragged the emotionless girl back to his tribe. One can hardly imagine how the bride felt when she woke up in a strange place with a strange husband after being beaten with a club! So our problems are nothing compared to this bride's.
For brides who worry about supposedly not looking good enough, it will be interesting to learn what Nigerian girls do to look spectacular at their wedding. To get married, a Nigerian girl has to get healthy. Yes, yes, she has to gain weight! And not just a few pounds. To live up to the bride's status, each of them spends a year in a special house where she doesn't exercise at all and eats only high-calorie food brought by her relatives. I wonder what her life will be like after the wedding if she has to build up such a "stock" before the wedding!
But brides aren't the only ones who have to "stock up" on food at their wedding. You can truly empathize with the men in Rwanda, for example. For weeks after the wedding, their wives beat and scratch them all night long before they go to their parents' house to sleep and rest. It is believed there that this tradition helps women permanently release the inner aggression in their relationship. Who knows, maybe they're right!
As you can see, our wedding traditions aren't so bad when compared to those of other cultures. But whether they contribute to making family life happier or not is the question!
But ultimately, everyone decides for themselves how to create their own family happiness!
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Sincerely, Eduard Stelmakh.
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