What better time is there for the honouring of long-held traditions than at one’s wedding?
It is a time of family, celebration, and the joining together of two families.
This momentous occasion in life is marked by many rituals that we are familiar with, such as the carrying of the bride over the threshold, the clinking of glasses to get the happy couple to kiss at the reception, and the bride walking down the aisle with something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.
Around the world, however, marriage customs are taken to a level that some of us would consider a little cuckoo. Varying religious beliefs, culture, and history have produced very different sorts of traditions when it comes to a wedding.
In the coastal Atlantic country of Namibia in Northwest Africa, the bride and groom spend the first night after the wedding ceremony is performed separate from each other. A Namibian wedding is characterized by everyone being invited, henna art, killing livestock to be eaten, lots of music and dancing, and food, food, and more food.
It sounds like an all-around good time, right? Well, imagine if, at the end of it all, you had to go home like every other night of your life and wait another whole day before actually spending the night as husband and wife.
After wedding preparations that can take up to a year in Namibia, and after all the excitement of the wedding itself, the bride and groom are technically husband and wife, but spend one more night apart. The second night after the ceremony they may spend together, but shockingly, the marriage is not even considered official until the woman has given birth to her second child!
