I’m still preparing for our Christmas trip to Germany to attend my son’s wedding to his Deutsche Fraulein. She and I have had a couple of miscommunications over understanding the different traditions. Each of us thinking the other was talking about one thing when we were talking about another. For instance, when I asked her about what the grooms parents were supposed to be doing she told me her mother had already bought the porcelain. I had no idea what porcelain had to do with a rehearsal dinner. She had no idea what I meant by a rehearsal dinner.
We got it all figured out, but I have been reading about traditional German weddings on the internet so I won’t be quite so ignorant when I get there. I thought I might share a few of the ones I’ve learned about here. There are so many interesting traditions that are different than ours that I may do another post on them.
- Polterabend - this is an informal (informal dress and food) party the evening before the wedding where plates and dishes are smashed (the broken pieces are thought to bring good luck to the bride). The bride and groom have to clean up everything. Now I understand why she was talking about porcelain!! She told me they broke the porcelain, but I didn’t understand her explanation about why and the circumstances around breaking porcelain. Sounds like fun!
- Wedding in a special place - It is a rule to choose a “special” place for the wedding, rather than the general rule in America of always having the wedding at the bride’s family church. Now I understand why she was so stressed out when his deployment was extended several times and she ended up having to plan a winter wedding. She had a place picked out that was only available in the summer.
- The Bridal Cup is a tradition that dates back to 1450. It represents a the start of a life long union between man and woman and is a symbol of faithfulness and good luck.
- The bride carries salt and bread, the groom carries grain - Bride should carry salt and bread as an omen for good harvest, and the groom - grain for good luck and wealth
- Flowers - besides the flowers for the bride and in church, the hood of the wedding car is decorated with lots of flowers.
- White Ribbon - the bride carries lengths of white ribbon with her bouquet, and after the church ceremony is over and the guests are leaving the church, she hands each driver a ribbon that they tie to the radio antenna.
- Car Procession - after the wedding a car procession is formed and drives through town honking their horns - others honk back wishing the couple good luck.
- Wedding Cake - the wedding cake, mostly a large cake with lots of ornaments, has to be cut by the bride and the groom together.
- Wedding Shoes - another tradition is to collect pennies for years and buy wedding shoes for the bride with this money.
- Dance - the first dance is danced by the bride and the groom, it is traditionally a waltz. The next dance is only for bride with her father and groom with mother, while bride’s mother dances with groom’s father.
- Veil Dance - this is a popular game for a wedding evening. Every woman or man who wants to dance with the groom or bride, has to pay for it. This could get expensive!
- Wedding Evening - at the wedding evening a lot of games are played, speeches are held (the first normally from the father of the bride), sometimes a wedding newspaper is handed out. Songs are sung, and so on.
- First Night - to make the first night as difficult as possible, friends of the couple do lots of funny or sometimes cruel things. They fill up the rooms with balloons, hide lots of alarm clocks in the bedroom, take apart the bed, and so on. My son tells me that he and his fiance covered the floor of a friends room with over 200 dixie cups half full of water among other things on the friend’s wedding night.
Bonus: Kidnapping of the bride - in some areas (mostly in small villages) friends kidnap the bride and the groom has to find her. Normally, he has to search in a lot of pubs and invite all people in there (or pay the whole bill). I’ve read this ritual can end badly, although I don’t know what ‘badly’ means in this instance! My son tells me he has participated in kidnapping the bride before and that the search for her can go on for hours. They mean it when they say that the groom has to search for her!
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Those were all new to me. Thanks for that fascinating list.
It was really neat to learn about the German wedding traditions. I’d never heard of any of these.
Definitely cool traditions! I’m glad you guys can work this stuff out — and I’m envious that you’ll get to be part of it.
Happy TT!
I love learning about other tradition. Very nice.
That sounds like so much fun!!!!
Terrific Thursday Thirteen!
My TT is posted.
Have a wonderful day!
Happy TT’ing!
*^_^
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(”)_ (”)Å
Raggedy
First I get to smash porcelain plates with MUCH glee, then I can drive the newlyweds around town while honking insanely? All without consequences?
Goodness me! That is too much fun! I’m bribing my younger brother to get his own Deutsche Fraulein next time.
“You will not enter this house until you bring back a German girl, young man!”
I learnt a lot of new things today. Fun things. Thanks for sharing!
(Bet you will have loads of fun there!)
Fascinating reading.
Gosh, you are getting a real education. Communication between mil and dil is challenging as it is. It sounds like you have a willingness to learn - hurray for you!
Happy TT!
You’re wonderful to do all that—so many moms would just get resentful about being expected to catch up with someone else’s tradition. It’s all pretty fascinating—-I never knew ANY of it.
She’s a very lucky future daughter-in-law, I’ll tell you that.
Great list! I didn’t know all of these but sounds like fun!
Wow, I didn’t know any of this even though I am of German origin. Kidnapping the bride? Loved the story about filling paper cups with water.
And thank you for being my first comment EVER on my FIRST edition of TT-13
Smiles,
Holly
Thanks for sharing all of this! And good luck on the wedding:) She’s a lucky girl to have a future MIL like you
Happy TT!
That cup and spoon are gorgeous!
I can see I’m going to have to get an invite to a German wedding. They sound like great fun!
Its always interesting to read how people in other places celebrate special events.
Thanks for sharing that.
Yes, so many of the good traditions can be overshadowed by the bad ones. However, as the world becomes a smaller place, more and more of the global bridal things are becoming accepted.
What a great T13! I didn’t know any of this stuff. I love hearing about these kinds of traditions. I had no idea wedding traditions in Germany were so different.
Very interesting TT. I kind of like the kidnapping one…. it sounds very romantic to have your groom searching all over for you!
I find it interesting that breaking things is supposed to bring good luck. I’ve always felt that breaking things is BAD. And not just because sharp little broken bits have been known to cause hurt and bleeding. -grin-