Wedding traditions of different countries
Wedding traditions of different peoples
All the peoples have their own wedding traditions related to the history of the local culture. Most of the modern weddings are organized according to the European example, but we shouldn’t forget about our old traditions either. Maybe they are the guarantee of the happy family life because they were worked out and checked for centuries. That’s why at least a small element of the local wedding tradition will be appropriate and reasonable in the ceremony, it will make the elder generation of the guests feel at ease and entertain everyone on the wedding. |
Spanish weddingThe bride is covered with sweet syrup as the symbol of the sweet family life. On the wedding eve both the young people band a flower to their hands. Whose flower fades first, that person will dominate in the family. |
Japanese wedding
On the day of the wedding the bride with her parents goes to the groom’s house. Traditionally Japanese brides put an angle-plate to hide their “jealousy horns” that every woman has. The groom and the bride drink 3 cups of sake (rice vodka), and they are considered to be a wife and a husband after the first shot.
Danish wedding
A wedding cake with marzipan is decorated with candles, fruit and medallions with the pictures of the bride and the groom.
Norwegian wedding
On the wedding day the bride and the groom plant small pine-trees on both sides of the entrance of the house of the future family as the symbol of the long happy family life.
English wedding
In England on her way to the church the bride is accompanied by a little girl who walks in the front of the ceremonial procession and troughs flowers under the bride’s feet to make her life happy and filled with flowers. A small amulet, for example, a little horseshoe is attached to the wedding dress of the bride for luck.
Thai wedding
An old couple prepares a bed and leaves lucky talismans such as bags filled with rice, sesame seeds, and coins for the bride-couple.
Hungarian wedding
The bride puts her shoe in the middle of the room, and those who want to dance with her, should put money in the shoe.
Dutch wedding
The wedding dinner is usually organized before the wedding ceremony in the house of the bride’s parents. On the table there always must be sweets – “sugar of the bride”, and wine – “tears of the bride”.
Swedish wedding
The bride puts her father’s silver coin in the left shoe and her mother’s gold coin in the right one. The bridal shoes must be without clasps that symbolizes an easy birth of a child in the future.
German wedding
On the wedding eve the bride’s friends come to the threshold of her house and brake pates and saucers against the threshold for luck. On the wedding the guests cover the road for the bride-couple with fresh green leaves and branches for their luck and wealth. The bride-couple gives handkerchiefs to the guests so that they could put the rest of the meals from the wedding in them and take it home.
Croatian wedding
All the married women on the wedding are taking the bridal veil off her and an angle-plate on her head as the symbol of her married status. After that all the guests make tree circles around a well (it symbolizes the Blessed Trinity) and through apples in it as a token of the future wealth of the new family.
Russian wedding
On the wedding eve there were a stag-party and a hen-party organized in the houses of the groom and the bride. The father or a brother of the groom invited all his friends. As inviters they walked from house to house bringing gifts and inviting young men for the party. On her hen-party the bride prepared for the wedding: her girl-friends spelled away the evil spirits. Sometimes the bride cried that she was leaving her parents’ house and her everyday life and was afraid of an unknown future in a new family. Sometimes her friends sang in choir.
Baltic States wedding
In Baltic States on the wedding the groom and the bride close a lock on a bridge of a river “locking their union” and through the key away in the river. It symbolizes a strong and long family life. |
Bridge in Riga
