selenak

Wedding kidnappings. At least in my part of Germany. During the festivities after the wedding, the challenge is to separate the bride from the groom, whisk her away to some restaurant or pub and there, together with any other guests involved in the enterprise, drink as many drinks as you can (as long as you're not the driver, I suppose) until the groom has tracked you down, for he has to pay for them.

I was told the family legend of how my father deduced where my mother was taken to. He grabed one of the friends who he knew would know, and drove with him up and down one of the seven Bamberg hills (we're not called the Franconian Rome for nothing). My not yet Aged Parent - my parents married at age 20 and 22 respectively - didn't drink alcohol, most of their friends did, so by this fiendish method the friend got sick and ready to confess very quickly.

The first wedding kidnapping I witnessed, as a teenager, also involved my AP, this time as the kidnapper, because none of the bride's other friends managed to get a hold of the bride independentlyl from the groom. My Dad just asked her to dance and discreetly waltzed her away. Yours truly and my mother were with the groom and the other pursuers later.

Since then, I've witnessed some more bride-nappings, but not recently. Maybe the habit is dying out, and yes, obvious gender roles are obvious, why not kidnap the groom for a change, etc., but those bride-nappings I witnessed were always playful fun for everyone concerned.

The Other Days