“It is love that makes impossible possible.”
Love, four letter word but with so many meaning. It can make you do crazy things, out of the ordinary things. You want to live with that one perfect person for the rest of your life and you are willing to go through anything. Even the craziest wedding or courting rituals just to make sure your love will last a lifetime. Just like these ten examples of unusual love customs from around the world. These rituals can show you that in other parts of the world, they take love and marriage much seriously.
1. Jumping The Broom (African-American)
This broom ceremony represents joining of two families. Sweeping away of the old and welcoming the new. Broom made with wooden handle and natural bristles and decorated with flowers or ribbons. Marrying couples have to jump over the broom together. Associated with slavery a long time ago, because they cannot marry legally, slaves during that time created a way where they can distinguish who’s committed to whom by jumping over a broom. It’s also a way of paying respect to the ancestors who gave way to the freedom for the new generations.
2. Bride Kidnapping (Kyrgyzstan)
Either with consensual elopement or non-consensual kidnapping, Kyrgyzstan’s practice of bride kidnapping is still common and accepted especially in the rural areas even if it’s illegal. Nearly half of the married women in rural areas are results of bride kidnapping or ala kachuu. This is their traditional way of getting married. If the guy likes the girl and wants to marry her, he will talk to his friends and even his family in planning to kidnap the girl he desires. He will bring the girl to his family even if they are both strangers to each other. His female relatives will try to convince the girl to marry the guy. They will try to put a white cloth or scarf to the girl’s head that symbolize her agreement to the marriage. After hours of struggle, most of the victims eventually give up and accept their fate. Even if she will not agree with the marriage, if she stayed at the guy’s house over night, her virginity will be in doubt. Most of the time it’s the girl’s family that will try to convince her to stay because of the fear of humiliation.
3. Force Feeding (Mauritania)
In Mauritania, the bigger the better. They have this saying “A big woman takes a big space in a man’s heart.” Mauritanian men find fat women attractive. Having a fat wife symbolizes wealth and prestige. Though the practice of Leblouh or intense force-feeding is not popular now unlike before, there are still some groups from the rural areas that practices this. This a form of preparation for the girl’s wedding. There are people you can hire to force feed girls as young as five years old up to teenage years. Girls have to consume large amount of goat or camel’s milk, butter and couscous for the whole day to gain weight easily. If the girl refuses, there will be consequences like inflicting pain by pinching a limb between two sticks. If she vomits she must drink it again. Cruel but this is the way they see beauty and can assure a better future for the girls.
4. Chicken Liver (China)
In China, there’s this minority group Daur with a very interesting way of setting up a marriage date. The date of their marriage will depends on the appearance of the chicken’s liver. The engaged couple have to dissect a chicken and inspect it’s liver. If the liver is in a good condition then they can set a date for their wedding. If not, they will have to continue finding a good chicken liver before they can marry.
5. Love Spoon (Wales / Norway)
Originally, love spoons were handcrafted by men as a gift to the women they desire. It is a symbol of courtship. It shows that the man is capable to providing a good life for the woman. Each handcrafted love spoons have certain symbols with specific meanings to show emotions and expressing what they really feel. In Norway, they have carved two spoons that are linked together by a chain. Each spoon has a first letter of the names of the married couple. They will eat together using these spoons at their wedding, that symbolizes linkage of their marriage. Some say that they hang the spoon at the door of their new home and if the spouse is away from home, the wife will wore them around their neck.
6. Love Hut (Cambodia)
In Kreung tribe in the northern east of Cambodia, fathers build love huts for their daughters when they reach their early teenage years. This is a place where a girl can meet and greet boys, getting to know them until she finds the suitable one for her. According to them, love huts give the girls independence and control. They can spend the night together, but the guy will leave in the morning. But once they’re engaged, they can be seen together.
7. Marrying a Tree (India)
Indians believe in astrological compatibility. If the woman wants to get married but there’s astrological differences between her and the man she wants to marry, she must do this ritual or can cause an early death to her husband. In order to reverse the curse, a woman must marry a tree then have the tree cut down.
8. No bathroom breaks (Indonesia)
In Tidong community in Indonesia, newlyweds aren’t allowed to use the bathroom for three days after the wedding. It is said that not doing this ritual can cause bad luck to the newlyweds. They will be closely monitored by making sure that they will not clear their bowels or urinate until the three days ritual is up. After the ritual they can take a bath and can go back to their normal lives.
9. Henna Tattoo (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh)
A form of ceremonial art applied to brides hands and feet before the wedding ceremony. It is an art of applying henna known as Mehndi. There are different uses of henna tattoos, but for Hindu Weddings, this symbolize beauty, offering, joy and spiritual awakening.
10. Log Cutting (Germany)
Take place after the wedding ceremony, before the couple leave the church. It is said that to bring good luck and for them to “overcome the obstacle” in their marriage. Using a long saw with two handles on each side, they are required to saw the log together. It is also a symbol of teamwork.
