Wedding season is definitely here, and today we’ll tell you about a wedding tradition that used to have one very clear meaning and then did a 180.
The best known form of that tradition today is tying cans to the back of a car that says “Just Married” on it.
(I don’t go to too many weddings these days, but at least a few people still do this, right?)
According to the New York Times, the tradition known as charivari, French for “uproar,” dates back to well before cars.
And it actually started as a way for people to disapprove of a marriage!
If a community didn’t like, say, that a local man was marrying a woman from somewhere else, or for any of the other reasons they might be sour on a particular pairing, they would gather up their pots and pans and bang them together outside the newlyweds’ home… on their wedding night.
Sometimes this was also a kind of hazing, with people busting into the house and demanding the bride fix them all something to eat.
By the 20th Century, weddings were less and less about this hot mess of social pressure and more about celebrating a new chapter of your life with friends and family.
This is also when cars became one of the biggest (pun intended) drivers of culture.
Banging pots and pans in high-volume disapproval went out of fashion; instead, people would tie old cans to the back of a couple’s ride and let said cans bang around on the road as they drove away in wedded bliss.
Maybe here in the 21st Century we could update the tradition again, and we could use our phones to send can emoji to our friends in the middle of their weddings?
Here’s a fun story for Pride Month.
Daniel Blevins saw a video a while back about a person whose family had refused to attend her and her girlfriend’s wedding.
He won some online attention after he got in touch and said, I can stop by and serve as a stand-in parent.
According to the Washington Post, Blevins made a standing offer to do the same for other people in his part of the country, and this led to the start of Stand With Pride.
It’s a network of people who will show up and support LGBTQ+ couples on their wedding days all over this country and dozens more.
And I bet they bring some pretty nice wedding gifts too.
Why Do Couples Tie Cans to Wedding Cars? (New York Times)
He inspired people to be stand-in parents at gay weddings. Now it’s his turn. (Washington Post)
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