21 Weird Wedding Traditions - mental_floss List Show Ep. 415

A weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John shares some bizarre wedding traditions!

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[Novjuly]

"I tend to take things to dark places." -John Green. No truer words have e'er been spoken.

[kateakerboom]

Hamilton reference at the end made me so happy!

[sarahgent]

There is a Hamilton reference in the text box of number 21 and that makes me so happy.

[oofuss]

The bride being kidnapped and taken to a pub happens in the Czech Republic as well. Except it happens during the reception. You can often see an unhappy bride with a couple of drunks, waiting for her husband to find her, in Prague.

[sashiloo]

3:33 it's ok John, you can host my funeral (i'm sure you'll put the fun in my funeral)

[niccoloaylward]

Nice little Hamilton reference at the end there!

[ze_rubenator]

No. 7: As a Norwegian I can confirm that this is totally the case. I gave the love of my the most kick-ass ironing board the northern hemisphere has ever seen. Needless to say she is now my wife.

[Mad_Props]

I'd love John Green to officiate my marriage.

[Nilguiri]

0:13 Do desperate old Appalachian spinsters smear themselves with catnip and tuna just before the last stitch is sewn into the quilt?

[DroidFreak]

You say they used quilts to decide, but really it's the cat that decides.

Meaning that cats have been deciding the course of human history all along.

[mahmoudyousif]

Where im from, Sudan, the husband and wife spit milk at each other. I don't know why, but it sure does make for a lot of laughter.

[ShobhitVashistha]

yah... in Indian weddings shoe stealing is kind of like a competition between the bride's siblings, cousins and friends vs groom's siblings, cousins and friends. The bride's side tries to steal the groom's shoes when he takes them off for the mundup ceremony while the groom's side tries to protect the shoes from being stolen. When the bride's side gets their hands on the shoes, groom has to pay money to the bride's side to get the shoes back. Usually, If the groom's side manages to stop the stealing, they would just give the shoes to the bride's side eventually, but not before the other side has admitted defeat. It's a fun tradition, and you get a reason to get to know all the other person's siblings/cousins/friends.

[frankhooper]

The tradition of saving the top tier of the wedding cake for the christening actually pre-dates freezers. English wedding cake is usually a rich fruit cake - often laced with alcohol - which will remain perfectly edible for a year without refrigeration. My christening in 1951 was accompanied with cake from my parents' wedding 10 months prior (Yay! I'm legitimate!)

[lilykep]

I 100% approve of the pub crawl kidnapping. That sounds like the best kidnapping ever.

[sinisterd]

Stealing the groom's shoes is the MOST FUN PART OF THE WEDDING!! :D

[mdeae]

"God I hope you're satisfied!" - Is that a Hamilton reference I spot?

[robinannaniaz]

Some weird ones from my culture. I'm ethnic Turkmen, from Turkmenistan, Central Asia.
- Brides belt (rope) get tied in knots like 40 times, just to make life miserable to the groom.
- Brides (or even grooms, not sure) friends line up before the door of the bride and the groom has to make his way to her door through a barrage punches and kicks.
- Bride sits on a carpet and 4 men lift her from 4 corners and carry her to her new home. In a different version:
- Bride gets rolled up in a carpet (I shit you not!) and gets carried away the the new home.

This is just some that I can remember from My tribe. There are dozens of Turkic tribes and each have stranger and stranger rituals like these.

[TuesdayIsland]

That Hamilton reference on the last one!

[RGLove]

as soon as John said Renaissance I couldn't stop thinking/laughing about it being pronounced Ren-ay-ssance, thanks dear hank and john

[realspacemodels]

I found it very useful in the years after my wedding to be able to say to people "Oh, you know my crazy relative, you met them at my wedding..."