20 Fascinating Wedding Rituals And Ceremonies

It’s common in many countries for the bride to cry as she leaves for the groom’s home at the end of the wedding. But, the Chinese people have taken the ceremony to the next level. In China, the crying ritual starts a month before the actual wedding.

First, the bride cries for an hour every day for 10 days. Then, her mother joins the bride and the crying goes on for an hour for the next 10 days. Similarly, 20 days after the ritual starts, the bride is joined by her grandmother. Women mimic the sound of music as they weep in multiple melodies to symbolize a joyful experience.

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Cuban people have a ritual of paying to dance with the bride on her big day. The money is given for the dance only, in addition to a wedding gift.

The male guests should pay an asking price to get the opportunity to dance with the bride. They are required to pin the money on the bride’s dress; the tradition has been carried out for hundreds of years to help the newlyweds pay for their wedding ceremony and honeymoon.

Shoe hiding, or stealing, is a common tradition followed by Hindu people. Also called Joota Chupai, the ritual involves the bride’s sisters and cousins stealing the groom’s shoes. And, in return for giving it back, they demand ransom, primarily in the form of money.

The ransom amount differs depending on the financial condition of the groom and the budget of the wedding. The ceremony helps the groom open up to his in-law family.

If you want to pull a practical deez nuts joke on somebody, you’ll not get a better opportunity than an Italian wedding. Under this tradition, guests are given sugared almonds at the reception which they throw at the newlyweds.

The ritual symbolizes happiness and prosperity to the bride and groom. Sadly, this tradition is slowly dying as more and more Italian families are switching to coriandoli, tiny pieces of colored paper.

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Under the Chinese tradition, the groom will shoot three headless arrows towards his bride. Once the arrows are shot with the bow, the groom then collects the arrows. He breaks the collected arrows into two halves during the wedding to symbolize their ever-lasting love.

The tradition requires that all the arrows shot by the groom should hit the bride. However, the ritual is pretty harmless as none of the arrows have arrowheads.

The blackening of the bride and groom is a pre-wedding ritual practiced in Scotland. The custom involves the couple’s friends and family members throwing a variety of items towards the marrying duo, including feathers, rotten food, and even mud.

However, the ritual is not considered rude as it has a cultural significance. The things thrown at the couple symbolize the various challenges and obstacles the pair will face during their lives. The blackening process is meant to prepare the couple for the future.

Fiji has a captivating tradition of the groom gifting a sperm whale tooth to the bride’s father. The gift is usually presented when the man visits his in-laws’ home to ask for permission from his future father-in-law.

As a coastal country, the tradition is prevalent in Fiji and is also growing its popularity among non-residential Fijians. A sperm whale tooth can cost anywhere between $100 to $1000.

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This tradition is popular in the European nation of Greece. The best man, also called the Kombaros, shaves the groom’s face with a razor.

On the day of the wedding, the groom’s best man, also called the Kombaros, shaves the groom’s face with a razor. The act is carried out to reflect the friendship and trust between the two men. Similarly, other groomsmen will help in dressing the groom for the ceremony. After the shave is completed, the potential husband is fed honey and almonds by his mother-in-law.

The beating up groom’s feet tradition can sound weird, especially to people from societies where physical violence is frowned upon. However, there is a logic behind this unusual tradition.

On the day of the wedding, the feet of the groom are tied up with rope and his bare feet are beaten using a stick or a dried fish. This ritual is carried out by the bride’s family to test the groom’s physical strength and his ability to endure pain.

The Baumstamm Sagen is a German wedding tradition involving a chainsaw and a log. Soon after the wedding is over, the bride and groom are presented with a chainsaw that they must use together to saw a large log.

The ritual reflects the couple’s strength when they work together. It spreads the message that no obstacle is big enough to overcome if the bride and the groom support each other.

While bride and groom kissing each other during a wedding is common in multiple cultures, Sweden has the unconventional tradition of guests kissing either the bride or the groom. When the bride leaves the designated bridal table, the ladies present at the ceremony can kiss the groom. Similarly, if the groom leaves the table, groomsmen are allowed to kiss the bride.

However, the kiss should be respectful and should land on the cheeks of the married couple. Kissing the bride or groom on the lips is strictly forbidden.

The Indonesian tribe called Tidong follows the weird tradition where the married couple can’t visit a bathroom for three days. Neither are the bride and groom allowed to answer nature’s call for three days.

To make sure that the ritual is strictly followed, family members lock the couple in a room for three days and constantly monitor them. During this time, they are provided minimal food and drinks. Once the three-day period is over, the pair is allowed to take a bath and use the washroom. Members of the tribe believe that breaking the custom will result in a failed marriage, cheating, or the death of their future kids.

During a Shinto wedding ceremony in Japan, the bride is required to wear a white hood on her head, which is also called a tsunokakushi. The white color represents the pureness of the woman getting married.

Likewise, the hood supposedly hides the horns of jealousy, which the bride reportedly has towards her mother-in-law. Besides the tsunokakushi, Shinto weddings often feature the bride in a full-white kimono along with white makeup.

The fake kidnapping of a bride is one of the weirdest wedding rituals followed in Romania. It is done as a fun activity and doesn’t involve any physical harm to the bride.

Once the woman is kidnapped, the fake kidnappers then call the groom to demand ransom. The ransom isn’t necessarily money; the kidnappers could also make demands like a few bottles of alcohol or the groom’s public declaration of love towards the bride. The tradition is relatively new; it was started by a football player a few years ago. The bride is usually taken to the Arch of Triumph in Bucharest, Romania.

Aboriginal Australians practice the interesting tradition of gifting rocks to newlyweds. Guests must bring attractive, colorful stones to a wedding and place them in a unity bowl carried by the couple.

In recent years, Aboriginal societies have started the trend of writing names and wishes on the stones. The rocks presented at the wedding should be collected by the marrying couple and kept safe as a memory of the wedding.

In the West African nation of Niger, a wedding is not complete until a camel dances to the beat of drums. Once the wedding is finished in a desert, the guests gather around a real camel as it grooves to a drumbeat. 

The camel dance is one of the many weird customs in Niger weddings. For instance, if a man is interested in marrying a girl, he must visit the girl’s home secretly and tickle her ears. Weddings in Niger are mostly held during full moon nights and even include the pre-wedding ritual of sacrificing of a goat to purify the wedding site.

Polterabend is a custom prevalent in German weddings. One night before the wedding, guests visit the couple’s home and break porcelain dishes. The utensils are broken to keep the bride and groom away from evil spirits.

The bride and the groom should then work together to clean up the broken porcelain pieces. The ritual is meant to bring good luck to the marrying couple and keep them safe from any prying eyes.

A wedding is one of the happiest days in the life of a married couple. However, brides and grooms in Congo are required to go through the ceremony without a single smile.

The no-smiling custom is a test of the couple’s commitment and their patience level. If either the bride or the groom smiles even once, it is seen as a sign of disrespect and as their lack of seriousness towards the marriage.

Gaat Sah is a wedding custom practiced in the Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. As the wedding progresses, each guest approaches the couple and cuts a strand of hair from each of their heads.

While the custom has been followed in Cambodia for centuries, most modern-day couples have a symbolic approach to the tradition where only one or two guests will cut the real hair, whereas the others will mimic the physical gesture of cutting hair.

The cake pull is a custom followed by unmarried female guests at a Peruvian wedding. Under this tradition, the wedding cake has multiple ribbons sticking out of the sides.

Once the wedding ceremony is complete, each unmarried woman randomly pulls out a ribbon. On the other side of one of the ribbons, there is a replica wedding ring. The lucky woman to pull out the ring is considered to be the next in line to get married.

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