It pains me to admit today was one of those days. It started as a very interesting day as a professional, and it sort of picked up it's own pace from there.
During dinner I developed a theory on the birth of wedding ceremonies as we know them. I feel obliged to warn anyone reading that this one is pretty out there (even by my standards), but I can't help myself! =)
For the sake of seriousness I decided to do a little background check, and I've come across an incredible curiosity. One think led to another and here's what came out of it...
For those of you who saw Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, this curiosity is related to when Borat tries to kidnap Pamela Anderson as his bride. Apparently this really does happen, and not only in Kazakhstan! In some societies families see their children as a work force, and because of this, when a girl/woman is to get married they feel it's their right to get some form of compensation for the loss of a "pair of good hands". They call this the bride's price.
But lets approach this from a male perspective: it's (almost) never pleasant having to pay for a woman! Right? But there's more: when a man marries a woman it's sort of like he's recruiting her to be a part of his merry gang of workers! So men, cunning as we can be, came up with a way around this conundrum!
It's called bride kidnapping, and it's sort of a self explanatory name. =)
I must sadly say that in some countries (mainly African ones), the act of kidnapping is followed by rape! I don't intend to male fun of this in any way. But other cultures deal with bride kidnapping in a very interesting way. Now, I'm going to talk about what I think is interesting, but lets not forget that in some cases violence can still be a part of it, so lets not fool ourselves and say "oh my, that sounds fun!".
In Asia they have a name for it - ala kachuu. It means to take and flee.
It all starts with the groom (to be) finding a bridal prospect. Then the groom gathers some of his male relatives and friends and kidnaps the bride, bringing her to his household. The grooms family then talks to the "bride" and tries to convince her of the quality of the groom and marriage benefits. During this period the "groom" isn't allowed to see the bride unless she authorizes him. By now the "brides" family mobilizes in one of two directions. Either they agree the marriage is a good idea, and they join the "groom's" family in trying to convince the "bride", or they don't, and go to the "groom's" house to free her.
By now you must be asking yourself what this has to do with anything we recognize as a wedding tradition.
And without further ado I give you..... The origin of expressions like groom's men and best man.
Both these terms were coined from the bride kidnapping tradition. They refer to the (not quite yet) groom's companions that aid him in the kidnapping. How about that for a curiosity??
I got a bit carried away there...
Maybe I'll come back to my own theories about wedding ceremonies some other time!
But hey, if not for anything else the curiosity on it's own was worth it (at least for me). =)
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