A few old fashion traditions

You might not see them if you are invited to a wedding, but if you do, just know these people are not completely crazy.

- La jarretière

Quite interesting and maybe shocking.

If in the middle of the banquet, you see someone putting a chair on a table, then the bride sits down and pulls up her dress showing her garter.
If people start shouting “la jarretière”, “la jarretière”, don't be afraid !

What you need is money.

The rules of the game :

Someone holds a basket,

when women put money in the basket, the garter (jarretière) goes down,

when men put money in the basket, the garter goes up !

What was this crazy game for ?

It was just, at a time when “liste de mariage” didn't exist yet, a way to give some money to the newly-weds. So they could go on honeymoon or buy somethings they needed.

- Aller réveiller les mariés

There was a time in France when all the guests where very happy to go and “disturb” the newly-weds during their first night...
And the newly-weds would try to find a secret place to stay. It was (nearly) funny, because of course, someone (the bride's mum) would know where they had escaped. So, all the game was :

- for the newly-weds and the mum : keep the secret

- for the guests : find it out.

But now it's no more like that.

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