Each nation has its own interesting traditions of the wedding night. And although they sometimes seem strange to us, they still have the right to be in connection with the peculiarities of the development of culture, the history of a particular country.
Responsible role
At that time in Europe there was a custom called "the right of the first night". Its essence is that the feudal lord had the right to deprive of innocence any girl from his possessions who got married. That is why, after marriage, the bride spent her wedding night not with her newly-made husband, but with the feudal lord. If he didn't like the bride, he had the right to refuse the first night, or sell this right to the groom. In some countries this tradition continued until the end of the 19th century.
How did this tradition come about? According to one of the hypotheses, in this way, the feudal lord confirmed his ownership.
According to another version, the master took on this “difficult” role so that the wife would go to the “proven” husband. Some historians see in this tradition elements of sacrifice (virginity was sacrificed to a deity, while the role of a deity in some countries was played by a priest).
Some peoples believed that the blood that appears during the deprivation of virginity brings evil and disease. Therefore, an elder of the tribe or a sorcerer was entrusted to conduct the ceremony - that is, a strong person capable of resisting the intrigues of evil spells. And only after this ritual of "cleansing" the newlywed was given to the groom.
Such a custom existed in the Scandinavian pagan cults. With the onset of darkness before the first wedding night, the priest of the god of fertility Freyr took the bride (of course, a stranger) into the forest, kindled a fire and sacrificed a pig. After that, he performed a ritual, and then brought the bride to the groom. It was believed that after this mystery, a woman will be able to give birth to many healthy sons.
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In some tribes in Africa and South America, the act of deprivation of innocence was performed by women (healers or spouses of the tribal leader).
Wedding night
A very interesting tradition existed in Scotland - there friends and relatives in all available ways prevented the newlyweds from spending their wedding night. They did not immediately allow the young to retire, and if they succeeded, they made noise and shouted, making it difficult to enjoy each other. They could feel all the delights of the first wedding night only when the guests got tired of fun and fell asleep.
In Greece, a child must run around the marriage bed, so that healthy children are born in the family in the future.
In Germany and France, friends and relatives acted in the same way as in Scotland - they made noise under the windows, laid out alarm clocks in the room.
In the Philippines, newlyweds were completely forbidden to have sex on their wedding night, and this is due to the fact that a child conceived on the wedding day, through the use of alcohol by the future parents, could be born sick.
The Chinese tradition of spending the first night differs from the European one, since here great importance was attached to the beauty of the premises where such an important event was to take place. The room was decorated with flowers, red and yellow candles in the form of dragons, the main purpose of which is to drive out evil spirits from the newlyweds. Before entering this room, the young had to drink wine from glasses, which were tied together with a red ribbon.
The most exotic traditions existed in Africa. There, in some tribes, after the wedding, the husband knocked out two of his front teeth on the wedding night. Thus, the husband informed his fellow tribesmen that this girl was married.
What was interesting in Russia?
The virgin bride before the wedding, or no, did not betray particular attention to that. In some regions of Russia there was even a "trial marriage" that could end with a wedding only after the girl became pregnant.
If on their wedding night the young husband could not cope with marital duties, they found a replacement in the person of a close relative (brother, godfather, older relative).