A magnificent wedding is a celebration that, of course, will never go unnoticed by others. The more luxurious the cars, the bride's dress, the brighter the celebration. However, in order to see firsthand what a truly magnificent wedding ceremony is, paths-roads should lead the traveler to sunny Naples.
In the south of Italy, weddings are treated very differently than in other countries. This does not mean that in Russia or Great Britain, the USA or Germany, newlyweds do not want to create a memorable holiday for themselves. It's just that “a Neapolitan wedding” is an action, a ritual, one might even safely say, a theatrical performance, designed primarily for the viewer. It is for this reason that seeing a wedding celebration in Naples is the dream of many tourists who have visited Italy.
The indigenous people living in Campania still sacredly honor the rituals and strictly adhere to them during the wedding. The most important thing in a Neapolitan wedding is that it should be more magnificent, "better" and more expensive than others. To achieve this and "outperform" other couples, the newlyweds get into simply gigantic debt holes. It doesn't matter how much money their parents have, in any case, the wedding should be truly luxurious. By the way, if a Neapolitan woman has not found herself a groom by the age of 20, at most, by the age of 25, she thereby brings indelible shame on her family... So weddings in Naples are far from uncommon.
One has only to look into the Guinness Book of Records, it immediately becomes clear that all the records associated with the wedding celebrations belong to the Neapolitans. For example, a 25-year-old Neapolitan woman, who was just starting to work in one of the law offices, arrived at the ceremony in a dress with a hem diameter of almost 14 meters. How could such an event go unnoticed, especially considering that the weight of the wedding dress exceeded 200 kilograms, and the girl herself was “transported” to the temple on a huge podium? All this, of course, is part of a fantastic performance called the Neapolitan wedding.
Many tourists who come to Naples can quite often see a young man in the evening performing a serenade under the windows of a house. This is not an actor, but a groom who tomorrow will lead his chosen one to the altar. It is under her windows that he sings about endless love and passions overwhelming his soul. As soon as the girl's heart is touched by his words, a light will come on in her bedroom - this is the beginning of the future "theatrical performance".
According to a tradition rooted in ancient pagan rites, the groom takes sharply sharpened scissors with him before leaving the house. This is done so that he could easily "cut off all evil tongues" during the wedding. Surprisingly, on the bride, in addition to the most luxurious dress, you can see an old thing, it symbolizes a connection with the past; a new thing that tells others about the beginning of a new girl's life; a thing taken from friends is a symbol of continuing friendship and a blue piece of clothing designed to show everyone that the future wife will always remain faithful to her husband.
According to a sociological survey conducted in Campania, practically all girls and boys (!) consider it impossible to live together without marriage registration... And this is in our age of "relationship without obligation"! A wedding, which, as mentioned above, resembles a theatrical performance, can plunge into a mute shock any tourist who visits the Italian south for the first time. Everything is so magnificent, magnificent, bright and loud. As soon as dusk falls on the ground and the wedding extravaganza comes to an end, the newly-made spouse takes his wife in his arms and brings her parents into the house. Yes, yes, in Naples, young people, most often, according to centuries-old tradition, live in the house of their husband's parents. Interestingly enough, the ritual of carrying a wife across the threshold is almost identical to the Russian tradition, and it is interpreted in the same way: a girl “dies” for her father’s family and is born in her husband’s family. “She appeared in the house without crossing its threshold” - this is how the ceremony of the appearance of a Neapolitan girl in the house of her new relatives is interpreted. During the celebration, the bride, as in many countries of the world, throws a wedding bouquet. However, in Naples, behind the young at this moment are not only unmarried girls, but also bachelors who dream of getting a garter from the thigh (!) Of the bride, which in turn is thrown by the groom.
To visit Naples and not see the wedding of the native inhabitants of the city is an unforgivable mistake. True, it is worth remembering that, as in Russia, it is not customary to marry in the Campaign in May. By the way, a traveler in Naples, watching a wedding, may get some kind of sweetness. It is a long-standing tradition, according to which newlyweds-Neapolitans distribute sweets to everyone, thus symbolizing their further “sweet” life together. By the way, dates are not considered a sweet treat in southern Italy. Sweet dishes on the wedding table and sweets intended for “grateful spectators” should be even sweeter than these fruits!