Wild traditions of the wedding night in different countries. Secrets of the wedding night: rituals of the peoples of the world

There are whole legends about the traditions of the wedding night. They received much more attention than wedding celebration. After all, the moment of the first intimacy was long-awaited not only for the newlyweds themselves, but also for their relatives and guests ...

What traditions do the countries of the peoples of the world adhere to and how to make the first wedding night truly unforgettable?

Medieval traditions

The wedding traditions of the Middle Ages were a real "torture" for a newlywed couple. After all, it was not the groom who deprived his bride of her virginity, but the master whom she served! The feudal lord owned the so-called "right of the wedding night", and he used it with pleasure.

This tradition existed not only in Medieval Europe, but also in Africa, Central and South America, Eurasia.

The groom himself could deprive the bride of virginity only if he came from a rich and noble family. But the process of intercourse necessarily took place in front of the relatives, who were supposed to “control” the inexperienced spouse. They commented on his actions in every possible way, making various jokes and encouraging their ward.

Traditions of Ancient Rus'

Ancient Rus' is famous for its somewhat liberal traditions. After all, the ancient Russian bride did not have to be a virgin. Moreover, the newlyweds were allowed to live for some time in the so-called "trial" marriage. And only after the birth of offspring, the newly-made family could get married.

Caucasian traditions

Everyone associated the Caucasian bride with purity and purity. Therefore, the young couple certainly had to show the result of the wedding night in the form of a bloody sheet. If the sheet was clean, it was considered an insult to the groom. His bride was not only disgraced in the whole district, but also expelled - back to her family or even to the monastery. This tradition is still observed in the Caucasus and Eastern countries.

Slavic traditions

The Slavs treated the wedding celebration as a great fun. And the preparation for the wedding night began even during the celebration itself. For example, the boyars of the groom could squeeze the bride from all sides, imitating sexual intercourse. Thus, they warned what awaited her at night. And even during the most intimate moments of the wedding night, the newlyweds were not left alone. Relatives allowed themselves to peek through the keyhole, brazenly knocked on the door and asked candid questions trying to find out from the newlyweds the details of sexual intercourse. It is not surprising that in such an environment, the groom could not completely “relax” and present the necessary “evidence” on the sheet in the morning. So he was given two more attempts. And if nothing worked out for him, it means that the relatives had to look for a replacement for him from his own friends, an attorney or an older brother. Fortunately, this tradition has long ceased to exist.

Forbidden Traditions

In some countries, newlyweds were forbidden to make love on their wedding night. For example, in India, newlyweds cannot have sexual intercourse for three days, otherwise the guardian gods can get seriously angry and punish the young couple with childlessness.

In the Philippines, young people could drink and walk with all the guests, but on their wedding night it was contraindicated for them intimacy to avoid harmful offspring.

In one African tribe the newlyweds staged a serious fight among themselves. A family scuffle can last for seven nights in a row. In the morning, the couple returned to sleep with their parents. Having had enough of this tradition, the newlyweds finally had to realize that there was no more room for anger in their hearts, and then they began their family life with a calm soul and many bruises.

Modern traditions

Today it is hardly possible to meet a bride who did not give herself to her groom before the wedding. However, the first wedding night should be associated for every young couple not only with the calculation of donated money or sex for show. So now there is new tradition, which allows the newlyweds to retire and spend a truly unforgettable wedding night.

Many couples can afford to rent a honeymoon suite in a comfortable hotel. The cost of a room in a luxury hotel varies from 1000 to 1500 hryvnia. The apartments are equipped with the necessary furniture, bath accessories and even a safe for secure storage gift money. Moreover, the bed of the young is showered with rose petals, they are waiting for the burning taste of ice-cold champagne, their favorite music and silver candelabra with a bright flame of candles. All this promises to make your wedding night unforgettable.

Closer to the night, the young wife went to her husband's house. Custom demanded that she break out and seek protection from her relatives. Probably, this is a memory of the era of abductions of sobbing girls from their father's houses.

The young wife was seated on the chariot, and a crowd of noisy husband's friends accompanied her, singing obscene songs and arranging dances right on the street. During the dances, movements imitating sexual intercourse were made, and the newlywed shyly covered her face with her red veil.

Life in Ancient Rome

When she reached her new home, the wife received goat fat and red woolen threads from the hands of the matron who performed the ceremony. She greased the doorframes with her own hands and fastened the threads, which symbolized her power over the house and the willingness to work for its prosperity . After that, the husband took his wife in his arms and carried him over the threshold, because the birth of a child.

When the young wife finished her prayers, her husband would come up to her and untie the belt on her tunic. His friends encouraged him in every possible way and gave him advice on how best to perform marital debt. Some researchers believe that among the tribes that gave the first citizens of Rome, there were those whose wedding ceremony provided for group intercourse with the bride, and these seeing off to the marriage bed are a transformed memory of this custom.

In the early morning, the wife made the first sacrifice to the gods of her new home : each house had its own household god Lar. Thus, according to the law of Romulus, which read: “A wife united with her husband must share with him all property and all rituals,” the marriage was considered valid.

The position of the wife in the ancient Roman family

The Romans, unlike the Greeks, did not have the custom of dividing the house into male and female halves, and women did not live in seclusion. The wife of a rich Roman ruled the house and, as a hostess, sat at the same table with her husband and his guests.

However, she was ordered to behave modestly, not to enter into the conversations of men and in no case drink wine. The use of wine by women was considered unacceptable and served as a reason for divorce, and according to ancient customs, it was completely punishable by death.

She could leave the house, but only with the permission of her husband, wearing a special dress that announced that she was married. Often she was accompanied by an elderly relative or the widow of one of her husband's brothers. talk to married woman was considered unacceptable, she was simply silently made way. However, she could attend social gatherings, appear in the theater or at religious ceremonies.

The position of the wife in the family was subordinate, but she had her own sphere of influence - Household affairs were completely in her charge. She did not feel love and passion for her husband, and this only made her life easier, because his many betrayals did not touch her. She wanted one thing - to give birth to children as soon as possible. The highest status for a woman was that of a mother, and the first Roman matrons personally fed and raised their children.

It is known that there was a divorce in Rome, but it did not appear immediately . Dionysius writes: "Informed people unanimously agree that in Rome for five hundred and twenty years not a single marriage was annulled." The first to divorce was a certain Spurius Karvily. The reason for the divorce was the inability of his wife to bear children. So, we see that divorce was the prerogative of the stronger sex. Plutarch wrote that the law of Romulus stated that a husband could leave his wife if she was barren or convicted of adultery, but the wife could not leave her husband under any circumstances.

If a divorce occurred due to female infertility, the wife was not considered guilty, because the ability to conceive is in the hands of the gods. She returned to her parental home with her dowry, and her status was equated to that of a widow.

When the wife commits some serious offense her husband could not decide her fate alone if he was not the eldest in the family. He should have brought the case to trial. family council made up of men. Sometimes one of the respected friends of the husband or the patriarch of the family could be involved in the case. If the wife was convicted of infidelity, then the council could recommend that the husband divorce her, in such cases, according to the law, the dowry remains with the husband.

By decision of the family council, the wife could not only be expelled with shame and dishonor, but also put to death. Also, if the divorce turned out to be unprofitable for one reason or another, the punishment was limited to flogging the wife or punishment that was quite curious from the point of view of morality: all those present at the council committed sexual abuse about an unfaithful wife. I don't know why they thought that such a punishment would deter her from adultery. In principle, there were no formal punishments for infidelity; it was a private affair of the spouses.

If in relation to the behavior of the wife there was strictness and some severity , then the husband's hands were completely untied in this regard. He could liberate as much as he liked both on the side and in the house, his wife could not make any claims against him. If he took a mistress among the slaves, the only thing the wife could afford was to force her to do the most menial work in the absence of her husband.

Despite their absolute power, men rarely interfered in household chores and did not allow themselves to give their concubines a privileged status. Often the fate of such a girl became the subject of bargaining between spouses. The husband made some concessions in relation to his wife, and the wife gave her mistress the status of a companion, and she received private room And nice clothes. Doesn't this remind you of the story of Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, who took her husband's mistress to be her secretary, demanding in return the right to rest alone on her estate?

What are the main reasons for divorce?

Such confusion in the world of the gods contributed to the fact that people easily abandoned centuries old traditions lifestyle yes. In the era of the late Republic, the procedure for divorce was simplified so much that most noble Romans were married at least twice.

The reason for the divorce could be anything: for example, a certain citizen divorced his wife because she preferred to watch games in the company of unmarried girlfriends, rather than sitting next to him, as befits a matron. But now women paid men in the same coin: having found a more profitable party, they accused their husband of evading marital duty and neglect in the performance of religious rites and received a coveted divorce. There were clear signs emancipation, although formally women remained completely powerless. The fact is that men themselves have changed.

After the conquest of vast territories and the taxation of their inhabitants with grain tribute, there were practically no peasants left among the free Romans. After all, now grain was cheap, and it was in abundance. Wealthy landowners acquired slaves to work on their estates and vineyards. It was more profitable than paying for the labor of free people. Thus, most of the Roman citizens in peacetime did not bother themselves with labor and actively adopted Central Asian customs.

Luxurious feasts with the participation of musicians and dancers, ending in sexual orgies, have come into fashion. Having become an idler, the Roman no longer valued his family so much, and women began to quietly take over the reins of government. Moreover, they came to the conclusion that the new customs of sexual freedom belonged to some extent to them too, but first of all, women achieved economic freedom.

Marriage, in which the wife fell under the arm of her husband, became less and less popular, women remembered more ancient traditions that came to the Romans from the Etruscans. Now a woman in a free marriage retained all her property , with the exception of the dowry that went to the husband. She could inherit her parents' property or her husband's property.

The traditional way of the family

Very quickly, rich and influential people appeared in Rome. free women who did not bother to observe the old customs and lived for their own pleasure. Decent matrons branded and blackened them, but they themselves only dreamed of being in their place.

The traditional way of the Roman patriarchal family was collapsing, and no legislative acts such as a tax on celibacy and severe punishment behind adultery could not reverse this process. The Romans listened to the fiery speeches of Augustus, who reminded that the family is the basis of the state and Rome would never have achieved greatness if its citizens had not combined strong marriages and did not have many children.

Not that all the Romans at once lost their desire to marry. Many wished and complained about marriage law, which does not allow legitimizing an alliance with a foreigner. Mostly they were military men who had returned from Asian campaigns. Living in the occupied territories, they acquired concubines and many brought them with them to Rome. Such men were not considered officially married, and their cohabitants were equated with prostitutes.

Those who returned alone were fascinated by the submissiveness of Asian women and their willingness to provide any sexual services, and therefore marriage to a arrogant Roman woman, boasting of her origin and virtue, did not seem attractive to them. Such men gladly laughed at the satyrs of Juvenal, who branded dissolute women and called on citizens to take up arms against them.

But then they went to cheerful girl, taking with him a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread, arguing something like this: “Why do I need a wife who will constantly whine and complain that there is not enough money for this or that. It is better to spend an hour with a corrupt girl when there is a hunt for it. No one dreamed of children, the main value in the era of the old Empire.

The peasants who abandoned their fields lived in the poor quarters of Rome in great crowding; three adult men could live in a small dark room. It's not up to the kids! Along with the decline in status family values in Rome began to flourish selling love for the needs of both sexes. In principle, Roman customs were never distinguished by restraint; this was prescribed only for women.

Let's start with our Slavic roots. First of all, let's turn to premarital relationships. They were not just allowed in some villages (and up to the beginning of the 20th century), moreover, there was even a so-called “trial marriage” there: that is, the bride moved to the groom, and the wedding was celebrated together with the wedding only after the birth of their first child. The church struggled with this, but without much success, especially since some priests from the hinterland themselves sinned with this. And a similar custom arose for a very simple reason: the purpose of marriage is the birth of offspring, and it would be nice to check the “capacity” of the newlywed in advance.

Many amusing rituals accompanied the traditional wedding night. For example:

• At the wedding, each of the invited men had to “squeeze” the bride to him, imitating sexual intercourse, so that she knew what to prepare for.
• The young woman was often taken off her shoes and undressed (albeit only to the shirt) by her father, older brother or boyfriend, that is, a witness from the groom's side.
• Although the spouses were locked in separate room, but all the relatives were sure to eavesdrop, and sometimes even peeped through the keyhole: didn’t the young people fall asleep, instead of “working” on the marriage bed? However, they weren’t allowed to sleep: they knocked on the door, asking if “the most important thing” had happened, they ran around the house all night shouting, obscene songs and ditties, urging them to “knead the bed” more actively.

It is clear that in such a situation, an inexperienced groom could blunder. And when in the morning he could not show evidence that he had deprived his partner of virginity (sheets stained with the blood of his wife deprived of her virginity), he was given two more attempts. For those suitors who were never honored with a marital act, they found a temporary replacement - either an older relative, or a godfather, or even the most “tested” and reliable of wedding guests or even .. a wedding musician - this custom still exists in remote Ukrainian villages.

In other villages, they acted even more simply: they put one of the brothers-in-law (the groom's older brothers) on the marriage bed to the young, so that in which case he would help the youngest "process" the bride. Such a disgrace happened long before the current "fall in morals", porn and group sex, and our ancestors did not see anything shameful or indecent here. All this is clearly incompatible with Christian morality, but Rus' has remained fundamentally pagan. At least, this is what the venerable scientists who compiled the dictionary “Slavic Antiquities” say, and these specialists cannot be accused of lack of patriotism.

Customs of other peoples:

• In some African tribes, there is a custom: on the wedding night, the groom knocks out the bride's two upper teeth. It becomes a kind of symbol of marriage. Toothless women are proud of their smiles, free - bashfully cover their mouths.
• On Philippines in the first marriage there is a custom of abstinence. That is, at a wedding you can drink and walk with the guests without fear that a child pumped with alcohol from the blood of his parents will be born defective.
• Some peoples Mexico, Peru And Brazil newlyweds abstain from sexual intercourse for several weeks - until the new moon. (For the same purpose - to help the body cope with intoxication before conception).
• IN Samoa young people are obliged to spend the first night meeting in the circle of sleeping relatives. To love each other? Please! But just quietly. God forbid to wake someone up - they will beat the groom.
• Newlyweds doing exciting business Macedonia. Their wedding night takes place in the struggle for the main wedding trophies - a hat and shoes. Whoever owns them will be the head of the family.
• The most fun of all have fun in the tribe Bahutu that in Central Africa (Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda). On the wedding night, it is forbidden to have sex - instead, the newlyweds arrange a scuffle. The ritual beating ends only at dawn, but is repeated the next night, and so on for a whole week. Night fights between spouses last until both understand: they have no anger for the future against each other. Deaths are extremely rare, but brawls sometimes last a week. IN daytime the newlyweds go to sleep at their parents' houses.

Strictly speaking, the wedding ceremony is always considered by everyone as the beginning of a sinless family life. Life together. The only exception are Nayars inhabiting part of the state of Kerala, in southern India. Their ceremony is practically no different from one of the types of an ordinary Hindu wedding. But three days later, the husband leaves his wife (during this time, the possibility is implied that the wife will be impregnated with his seed). He can walk wherever he pleases. She can have sex with anyone and kick her lover out of the house whenever she wants. Now there is nothing like it anywhere. According to scientists, such a custom dates back to the days of early matriarchy - it would still appeal to modern fans of unsystematic sexual relations. Only in Nayar, another lover is responsible for the upbringing and maintenance of all the children of the wife and herself, and “civilized” womanizers do not always have the habit of not only answering for strangers, but also for their own children.

Therefore, if you do not delve into hoary antiquity, when polygamy flourished among the Slavs, and in some places all the men of one village had general rights on all the local girls and more later times When, under the influence of Christianity, morals softened, there were customs very far from romanticism and chastity. It seems that you and I live in the most adapted for family happiness era.

Every nation has its own wedding ceremonies. Somewhere the bride is led to the altar by the hand by her father, and somewhere the groom's friends secretly abduct her from the bedroom of her father's house. Somewhere newlyweds are thrown with rice, and somewhere they are showered with banknotes. African wedding ceremonies Europeans will certainly consider exotic. Well, those traditions of African tribes that relate to the wedding night will seem crazy to many!

Wedding night in a communal apartment

Among the Arikan Berber tribes, the bride and groom rarely manage to stay alone the night after the wedding. It is customary for them to spend their first wedding night as a team, for which several newly married couples settle down together in one large bedroom. This is considered a session of learning love games, and besides, according to the Berbers, it relieves stress before important event. The bride and groom do not always know each other for a long time, and it is still more fun to engage in obscenity in the company of peers.

Assistant under the bed

In Swahili culture, arranged marriages between parents are accepted, and often before the wedding, the bride and groom do not know each other at all. In order for them to cope with the difficulties of the wedding night, from ancient times to the present day, in the bedroom, under the bed, the eldest relative of the bride is arranged - an assistant, or somo. If necessary, she gives advice to the newlyweds during the process, and in the morning testifies that everything went well, and shows her fellow villagers a sheet with traces of blood.

Mach virgins

Among the Zulu people, at a wedding, before the newlyweds leave for their wedding night, the families of the bride and groom arrange a kind of dance competition. The culmination of the competition is the bride's dance, during which she must raise her leg as high as possible and remain in this position for as long as possible in front of her mother, who, meanwhile, must look under her skirt and make sure that she is still virgin. If you think about it, this moment is a pure formality - if the mother is not an experienced gynecologist. But the guests are probably happy.

Fat night

In the Himba tribe living in Namibia, before going to the wedding night at the groom's house, the bride comes to the house of her father, who tells her about her upcoming marital duties, after which her relatives smear the girl's head with cow fat. Fortunately, usually a special cowhide headdress is first put on the bride's head - you can see it in the photo. I would like to hope that this structure is easily removed, and the newlyweds do not have to struggle with it all the wedding night.

Out of the blue

In the African Shona tribe, the first wedding night comes before the wedding, and for the groom it comes as a surprise. After the conclusion of the engagement, the bride herself chooses the day - or rather, the night - on which she, in a white wedding attire and accompanied by numerous relatives, comes to the groom's house with songs and dances. Neither the groom nor his family know this date, and this is not an accident: Sean believes that in this way the girl tests her beloved and his family for their ability to cope with unexpected problems. The unsuspecting relatives of the groom should notice the procession in time and, in turn, meet it with a joyful dance. After a mutual expression of joy, the bride remains in the mother-in-law's house, where, finally, she will be left alone with the groom. Well, the wedding ceremonies will begin in the morning.

The third is not superfluous

The Banyankole tribe of northwestern Uganda has strange tradition. Before the bride gets married, her aunt must sleep with her fiancé. An experienced woman thus checks that the man is all right with potency, and at the same time evaluates his bed talents. Then, on the wedding night, the aunt is also present in the newlyweds' room - but this time in the role of a coach: she tells inexperienced young people what and how to do. I wonder how they generally cope in such an environment?

The candle burned on the table, the candle burned

In the villages of Tunisia, the groom, having fulfilled his marital duty, must immediately light a candle and put it on the window. So he informs the whole village, carefully watching the windows, that everything went as it should, and the bride was a virgin. It is not known whether the newlyweds are embarrassed by the fact that the entire village is immediately dedicated to the course of their intimate life?

Among girlfriends

In Morocco, virginity is strict. During the bachelorette party before the wedding, the bridesmaids are required to check if she is a virgin and report their findings to all interested parties. And in the most traditional families girlfriends come and on the wedding night. Probably in such big company The newlyweds are having a hard time!

Let there be blood!

In Ethiopia, the bride's virginity is also a major concern on the wedding night. She must take her white head covering with her into the bedroom - it is on it that she should leave traces of blood. While the newlyweds indulge in pleasures, the newly-made mother-in-law and a witness from the groom's side are waiting outside the door. Immediately after the end of the process, the girl must take out a scarf stained with blood. If for some reason there is no blood, the young husband has the right to flog his wife with a whip and even refuse her, sending her back to her parents and demanding full compensation for the ransom.

In bed with a stranger

There are many countries where the bride meets the groom for the first time only at the wedding. But in Tanzania, things are even worse: the girl sees her betrothed for the first time only in the bedroom, during the wedding night. Marriages there are made exclusively by agreement with the parents, and the bride and groom do not meet before the wedding. The whole festival also passes without her: while the groom and relatives are having fun, the girl, dressed up and made up, sits at home and waits. young husband. When he arrives, the girl is escorted into the bedroom - and here she first meets the one with whom she will share a bed today - and always.

Listen everyone!

For Libyan Muslims, a wedding is a long business, and usually lasts at least five days. The first three days the bride and groom spend each in their own home. On the fourth day, the bride arranges at home friendly party, where the groom comes for her in the evening, taking his friends with him for courage. Then the couple, accompanied by the whole crowd of friends, goes on foot to the house of the young spouse. Among the friends of the newlyweds at this time it is customary to make noise as loudly as possible and to joke publicly about what will happen next. closed door. True, in the house of the bride and groom they are still left alone, which distinguishes the Libyans from other African peoples.

Virginity in sacrifice

At a traditional Egyptian wedding, it is not the groom who takes the bride's virginity. This is done by a specially called midwife, wrapping her fingers with a white handkerchief. The blood on the handkerchief, which is immediately shown to the groom's relatives, is indisputable evidence of innocence, which, alas, the groom himself was not destined to fully enjoy.

extramarital night

Wedding preparations in Namibia whole year, it is accompanied by mass celebrations, a feast for the whole world, music, dancing and other fun. However, after the festival, the bride and groom each go to their own homes and spend the night separately from each other. They have to wait another whole day - only on the second night after the wedding they are allowed to lie down in the same bed. But, by the way, at the same time, a woman is not considered an official wife until she gives birth to a second child.

Under the typewriter

In the Sudanese Nuer tribe, after the wedding feast, friends take the bride to the groom's village, where they first shave her head baldly, and only then take her to her husband. The meaning of this custom is not clear, but the fact remains: a girl with hair does not have the right to go to bed with her lawful young husband.

Practice is the way to mastery

In Zambia, traditions are extremely liberal: there, the bride and groom arrange a wedding night on the eve of the wedding. On the pre-wedding day, the bride's older relatives give her a master class on sex, telling her everything they know, right down to how to properly wash each other in the bath. After that, the bride is taken to the groom's house and the young people are told to practice sex until they lose their strength. And the next day, all the girls in the village ask the bride how everything went, waiting for detailed answers.

In some cultures, customs associated with the first wedding night not only the bride and groom took part. Here are some of the most embarrassing, weird, and hilarious wedding night traditions.

French soup served in the toilet

This tradition arose at a time when people defecated their natural needs in chamber pots. The relatives of the bride and groom filled the chamber pot with the remnants of alcohol and food with holiday table, after which they gave it to the newlyweds as "fuel" for their wedding night. They did not leave the bedroom until the bride and groom had completely drunk the contents of the pot.

This tradition exists to this day, however, in a somewhat improved form. Today, instead of a pot, relatives of the newlyweds use a bowl in the form of a toilet, which is filled with chocolate fondue and champagne.

In the 18th century in royal families they practiced a ritual according to which, on their wedding night, a group of gloomy priests, court ladies and gentlemen gathered at the bedside of the newlyweds.

Scottish cheese joke
According to the book " wedding customs world: from henna to honeymoon”, in Scotland there was once a custom to take a piece of cheese with you to bed for good luck. The newlyweds had to put about 500 grams of Limburg cheese between a pair of towels and crush it.

Indian bedspreads
In India, on the wedding night, the bride hides under the covers on the bed, which is surrounded by members of her family. The groom enters the room with his relatives and tries to determine which side the bride lies with her head. At this time, her family members strive to confuse him with false clues and mocking jokes. If the groom guesses exactly which side his bride's head is on, they will live on equal terms in marriage, if not, then he is doomed to serve (fall at her feet) to her for the rest of his life.

Chinese tradition "Nao Dongfang"
The Chinese tradition of "Nao Dongfang", which originated during the Han Dynasty, is still practiced today. It promotes rapprochement between the bride and groom through a series of dirty jokes and games played by the relatives of the newlyweds. In one of these games, a friend or family member holds an apple tied to a string. The newlyweds must try to bite him, which eventually leads to a kiss. Very often, a friend or family member puts the apple away at the very last moment.

Comic serenades under the windows of the newlyweds
Previously, in France, the townspeople, in order to shame adulterous marriages and other frowned upon unions, made a fuss under the windows of the newlyweds on their wedding night. This tradition was subsequently adopted by the inhabitants of the United States and Canada during the French colonization.

Today, relatives of newlyweds gather outside their home and make noise by banging pots and pans and singing songs loudly, mostly as a joke.

Korean tradition using fish
In Wedding Bells and Chimney Sweeps, Bruce Montague describes Korean tradition, according to which the groom's friends take off his socks, tie his legs and beat his feet with fish, usually dried corvina, which sometimes can be up to 90 centimeters long.


During this action, the groom is interrogated. If his answers are unsatisfactory, the beating by the fish becomes more severe. According to some sources, this acts on the groom like Viagra. This is done so that he does not blunder in bed on their wedding night.