Weddings always bring around beautiful customs and rituals that speak louder than words. However, what stuns everyone are the superstitious and baseless thoughts that these traditions are founded upon. Our societies are filled with a million superstitions which uproot all morals and beliefs and enforce you to go against your own rational judgement.

Here’s a round-up of all the weirdest and wackiest wedding rituals from across the world.

1. Blackening The Bride, Scotland

   

Scotland’s tradition of ‘blackening the bride’ is one which can leave anyone stunned. The whole outlook behind this concept is ‘If you can handle people humiliating you, you can handle marriage’. People snap explicit pictures of the wedding couples covered in food or else other type of adhesives. Later, they are paraded publicly for the whole community to stop and stare at them. Also, many a times the bride and groom are driven around in an open-back truck, which is accompanied by the clattering and the banging of pans and pots by the couple’s captors. There are no set rules for this, just an underlining thought that the couple should be messy and uncomfortable and a group of people should encounter this occasion.

2. Kill The Chick For A Happy Marriage, China

China (Duar) is a home to the Duar minority, which is an ancient ethnic group living in the Mongolian regions. This group makes use of divination to decide the date of wedding. They bring the couple together to join hands to hold a knife and kill a chick. According to the appearance of the liver of the chick, the date of wedding is decided. If the liver looks unhealthy, then the couple kills another chick to extract its liver. What a deadly tradition!

3. Cry A Month To Sing The Crying Wedding Song, China

In China, all females cry for a month before the wedding, in order to express their happiness. The Tujia people in China consider crying at the wedding as a serious tradition. Usually, the bride-to-be starts crying a month before the wedding day, following which the bride’s mother joins her and they cry together. Another 10 days later, the grandmother joins the mother & daughter, to cry together. If the bride has any sisters or aunts, then they also have to join. The crying becomes like a song after a point of time, which is called as the crying wedding song. We really don’t know whether to cry or laugh at this tradition.

4. Marry A Tree If You Are A Manglik, India

In India, if someone is Manglik (which means ill-fated), then s/he is made to marry a tree prior to marrying their fiance. Later on this tree is cut, to take away the bad luck of the person. The bad effects of a manglik not marrying a tree have been observed in many marriages in the country.

5. Control Your Pee For 3 Days To Enter Your Marriage Pure, Malaysia

This custom belongs to the Tidong Community of Malaysia, where the bride and groom are prohibited to pee straight for three days before the marriage. The couple is strictly watched by several people and given very measured diet of food and water. This tradition is believed to purify the wedding.

6. Give Birth To Two Children Or Get Divorced, Southern Sudan

There is a tribe in Southern Sudan which believes that marriage can only be successful if the bride gives birth to two children. In case, she fails in doing so, the groom divorces her and begins his search for another wife who can give him two children. Imagine the plight of left-out children.

7. Spit On Your Daughter For Good Luck, Kenya

In Masai, Kenya, it is a custom for the bride’s father to spit on his daughter’s head and breasts. The bride is then told to not look back or else she will be turned to stone.

8. Kiss The Groom/Bride, Sweden

In Sweden, in case the bride leaves the room, the women get in a line to kiss the groom. And if the groom is absent, then the men pounce on the bride to shower her with kisses. This looks like such a treat before the couple gets into a lifetime of a monogamous relationship.

9. Bend Down To Drink Stuff From The Shit Pot, France

In France, after the wedding ceremony is completed, the friends of the couple collect all the leftovers from the wedding and fill the toilet with it. Next, they force the newly wedded couple to drink out of that toilet bowl. Though in the ancient times, garbage used to be substituted by champagne and chocolate, but still the wedded couple used to drink from the toilet bowl. The custom is said to strengthen the relationship.

10. Keep Your Feet On The Ground Or The Evil Fairies Will Take You Away, Ireland

In Ireland, it is believed that the bride must keep both the feet firmly on the ground when she’s dancing with her fiance. There is an Irish folklore which states that if the bride lifts her feet during the dance, then the evil fairies will come and sweep her away.

Every culture has different traditions, but it totally depends on you whether you wish to give in or not. Do you really think that happy marriages are made out of successfully-followed traditions? Share your views in the comments section below.