Weddings are precious moments everywhere, but in Romania it comes with
a little side of kidnapping for ransom. So forget veils, there brides
wear blindfolds ... Here's the country's strange tradition of "bride-napping":
Mock abductions of brides are part of marriage ceremonies across the
former Soviet Union. In some countries, guests lock up a bride or have
her hide in a backroom during celebrations, demanding that the bridegroom
delivers a "ransom" - like singing a song, dancing or sometimes
paying real money. [...]
Recently, about 20 brides were held hostage at the Arch of Triumph,
which was built in 1922 to honour Romanian soldiers who died during
the First World War and to celebrate the reunification of Transylvania
with the rest of Romania.
One bride was driven in from her wedding in a town an hour east of
Bucharest with a gaggle of guests in tow. Another grabbed the toy machine-gun
of her kidnappers, dressed up as Taliban, and pretending to use it in
front of the monument.
Alison Mutler of the Associated Press has the story: Link
- via Art
of the Prank