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I DO! THE CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE AROUND THE WORLD ✦ Marriage is a truly global practice, the biggest and most important day of many people’s lives, and rightfully so.
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arriage is a truly global practice, the biggest and most important day of many people’s lives, and rightfully so. However, the manner in which marriage is conducted and celebrated around the world differs dramatically with some truly unusual, humorous and often quite frankly bizarre traditions and customs witnessed. Take, for example, couples tying the knot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are not permitted to smile, lest it shows that they are not serious about the commitment they are making.
Tears are frequently shed at weddings although that is incomparable to the Tujia people in China where the bride, a month out from the big day, will dedicate one hour a day to crying. After 10 days her mother joins and, 10 days after that, her grandmother gets involved. On the eve of the wedding, all the females in the family have joined the weep-fest, the wailing cacophony believed to represent song and therefore joy. Dancing is always a huge component of any good wedding party but in Niger having an actual camel perform a dance takes the festivities to an altogether different level entirely,
as the dromedary shakes his hump along to a drum-driven rhythm! Brides dancing in Ireland best leave one foot on the floor at all times to save tempting evil fairies coming and sweeping her away and if you want a dance with the bride in Cuba then you’ll have to pay for it! Men asking their father-in-law for their daughter’s hand in marriage is a common tradition all around the world but in Fiji it is an act accompanied by the presentation of a whale’s tooth. Meanwhile in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia relatives from the bride’s side of the family will lay face down on the ground, side-by-side, as
