10 of the strangest courtship rituals from around the world

You liked the girl. I met. What's next? You need to somehow conquer, achieve, look after. Well, you take me to the cinema. Well, buy flowers and candy. Well, you’ll invite me to dinner at a restaurant. All this, of course, is cute and beautiful, but, you see, it’s not original. But these courtship rituals from all over the world are a completely different matter! Unusual, original, interesting... However, it’s still not worth repeating them - otherwise your overly modern and traditional lady may simply leave you... and not return.

1. Zulu love huts

Among the Zulus, if a girl and her groom have long passed the “bouquet-candy period,” the bride’s father will build a separate “love” hut on his territory. His daughter and her lover can meet there at night. Essentially, the father ignores the groom until he asks his daughter to take his cattle. As soon as the groom gives her part of the cattle, the father recognizes the suitor and gives permission for the wedding.

2. Wodabe Courtship Festival

In the African Wodabe tribe, it is precisely the man who flaunts. Wodabe men value beauty and spend their days preening to please women. During the Gerewol courtship festival, male beauty reaches a new level. Men dress up for this event, which can last a whole week. They participate in a dance competition called "yaake". And women just come and choose grooms.

3. Bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

If you are a man in Kyrgyzstan who likes a woman, just grab her and force her to marry you. This is an old tradition that returned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to statistics, almost half of the country got married this way. Usually the man knows the girl he is abducting, but sometimes strangers are also abducted.

4. Courting house in Cambodia

In Cambodia, fathers build huts for their teenage daughters so they can communicate (and not only communicate) with their fiancés. Girls can bring their boyfriends to these huts, and if there are several of them, it’s not scary - after all, she must try many to find the one. Yeah, very advanced...

5. “Visitors” of the Dai people

The Dai people of China have a courtship ritual called "visiting." The girls gather around the fire with spinning wheels, and men in red blankets approach them. Each man chooses a woman and begins to sing to her. If a woman likes the way a man sings, she offers him a chair, and he must throw a blanket over her shoulders. Quite a nice ritual, isn't it?

6. Teeth filing in Bali

When young people in Bali reach adulthood, they undergo a ritual of teeth filing. During the ceremony, their upper canines are filed down toward their incisors. This is supposed to protect young people from evil tendencies and prepare them for marriage.

7. Sweating in rural Austria in the 19th century

In rural 19th-century Austria, unmarried women placed apple slices under their arms and danced until they sweated. After this, they gave the apples, soaked with their sweat, to their partners. And the partner... yes, he had to eat this apple in order to “be saturated with the sexual aroma of his bride.”

8. Irish kiss

Irish gypsy girls are not allowed to date, so if a boy wants a girl's attention, he must grab her and kiss her. This is such an unromantic and harsh first kiss.

9. Buying a date or marriage in Thailand

In the Thai province of Chiang Rai you can... buy a bride. A man approaches a girl he likes and begins to flirt with her. If she likes him, they go on a date. After that, they go to the girl's house, where the groom negotiates with her mother about how much their dates will cost and how long they will meet. He can also buy marriage if he likes the girl enough.

10. Finnish knives

Up until the 19th century in Finland, when a girl reached marriageable age, her father would hang an empty scabbard on her belt. If a man liked a girl, he simply put his knife in her sheath. If a girl returned the knife, it means she was not interested in its owner, but if she kept it, it means things were heading towards the wedding.