Blackening of the Bride

As someone who has is married and has several engaged friends, I find different cultural wedding traditions to be quite fascinating. There is one however, that makes me very glad that our culture does not follow. This would be the Blackening of the Bride which is a Scottish tradition.

The Blackening of the Bride originally only happened to the bride (hence the name), but now in many cases the groom must also face the tradition. Prior to the wedding, the friends of the bride and groom with randomly throw and cover those getting married in fowl, rotten foods. Such things used include rotten eggs and curry, fish, curdled milk, feathers, paint, syrups and many other things you would never want to be drenched in.

After the soon-to-be wed couple is covered from head to toe, they then are either tied to a tree or taken around town to local pubs. The reason this tradition is done is the idea that if they can live with being drenched in nasty items than they can survive any marital problems.

Personally, I'd rather take on some of the marital problems then be covered in rotting fish and eggs and tied to a tree. I am almost positive that my husband would have the same feelings as he is extremely sensitive to smells. Well many of my ancestors came from Scotland and we still uphold some of their traditions,  I am very glad that this one got left behind!