Half of Europe and a Million Likes for a Bride: The Strangest Things That Have Become a Wedding Dowry

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The bridal dowry has long been an integral part of weddings and is used in almost every culture. The dowry often served as a kind of "protection" for the wife, since she had the right to leave her husband and take this property with her if he or his family treated her badly. Usually the dowry and bride price is just money, but sometimes it takes on a very unusual form.

1. The foreskin of 100 Philistines

King David of Israel, known for killing Goliath, had to work hard to marry his first wife. A woman named Michal fell in love with a former shepherd, but the problem was that her father was Saul, the king of Israel. Saul, jealous of David's growing fame and clearly unwilling to marry his daughter to him, wanted David to die in battle and demanded that he bring him the foreskin of 100 Philistines, Israel's hated enemies. David went on a campaign, killed 200 Philistines, circumcised their foreskin and brought it to the king. True to his word, Saul reluctantly allowed David to marry his daughter.

2. Weight of the bride in shillings

Born in the 17th century, John Hull was the creator of the first mint in Massachusetts, the first person to run it, and the creator of the silver shilling with a minted pine tree on it. The coins meant so much to him that John Hull ordered the ransom for his daughter in shillings when a man named Samuel Sewall asked permission to marry her. After lengthy negotiations, it was decided that the amount would be equivalent to the weight of Hull's daughter in shillings. When the day came to ask her daughter's hand, they put Hannah on the scales and asked for a ransom for her in the amount of about 45 kilograms of silver. This was the equivalent of $ 1600.

3. Magic pear

An old Scottish legend of the 13th century tells of a certain Colstone pear, which was originally found by a local magician named Sir Hugo de Giffard. When he married his daughter Margaret to a member of the de Brun family, Sir Hugo decided to give his daughter an unusual dowry - a magic pear. Giffard told the future family of his daughter that as long as they keep this pear, she will protect the family and their descendants. The legend was continued in 1692, when one of Giffard's descendants, Lady Elizabeth Mackenzie, had a dream that she had bitten a pear. The servants rushed to the silver box where the family kept the magic fruit, and found the fruit intact. However, shortly after this event, Mackenzie's husband went into debt and sold the pear to his brother Robert, who later drowned along with his two young sons.

4. $ 65-130 million

Here's a relatively recent story: Gigi Chao is a lesbian and the daughter of Cecil Chao, a Chinese billionaire. Unable to come to terms with his daughter's lifestyle, Cecil suggested this: if any man can convince Gigi to marry him, giving up his lesbian orientation, he will give them a dowry of $ 65 million. Later he offered to almost triple this amount. However, Gigi remained steadfast, stating that she was in a real marriage with partner Sean Eve and asks her father to treat Eve as "a normal and decent person."Although the stream of offers from potential "suitors" did not dry out, Cecil eventually turned down his offer, saying that if lesbian love was his daughter's choice, there was nothing he could do about it.

5. The weight of the bride in the soap

At the beginning of the 20th century, a Frenchman named M. Le Blanc married the daughter of a Parisian. The bride's father was a wealthy hairdresser and he gave his daughter two dowries. The first was traditional - a lot of money, but the second was completely unique. Wanting to keep his future son-in-law always clean, the bride's father shipped him a pile of soap, weighing as much as his daughter, as a second dowry. Considering that the bride weighed 64 kilograms, it can be assumed that the newlyweds never bought soap afterwards.

6. Million Likes on Facebook

In 2013, Salem Ayash, a Yemeni poet and popular internet character in his home country, decided that his alleged son-in-law should prove his worth as a future husband and not just pay the ransom. To show that he is hardworking and able to provide for his wife, a potential son-in-law named Osama was given a month to secure a million likes on Ayasha's Facebook page. Salem subsequently revealed that he was tired of the practice of buying brides in his country. “Prices” for brides have long gone out of control, and often entire neighborhoods are dumped so that a young man can get married. Unfortunately, Ayash's Facebook page is currently inactive, so the result remains a mystery.

7. Most of Southwest France

Alieonora of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful women in Europe in the 12th century, eventually becoming not only Queen of France but also of England. Her father died when she was 15, making Alienor the Duchess of Aquitaine, and Louis VI ("The Fat") became her guardian. The king immediately ordered her to marry his son, who took the throne a few months later when Louis VI died of dysentery. As a dowry, Alieonora had the Duchy of Aquitaine. After 15 years of marriage (rather unhappy, as Alienora claimed that her husband was no better than a monk), King Louis VII and Eleanor annulled the marriage. The queen managed to save all of her land in return for allowing the children to stay with the king. Eight weeks later, she married Henry Plantagenet, bringing him her land as a dowry (Henry became King of England less than two years later).

8. Greatest sculpture of the Qing Dynasty

An exceptionally expertly carved piece of art, Jadeite Cabbage, is a figurine of a single piece of jadeite in the shape of a head of a Peking cabbage, with locusts and grasshoppers hiding in its leaves. Most likely, the statuette, created in the 19th century by an unknown artist, is considered to be a dowry of Consort Jin, the last wife of Emperor Guangxu, and symbolized her purity. It is believed that the white "body" of the cabbage symbolizes purity. In addition, two insects (grasshopper and locust) are considered to be symbols of "blessing for many children." This is due to the fact that the female lays many eggs at once (locusts - up to 1500 pieces). Currently, the statuette has become the most popular exhibit at the National Palace Museum of Taiwan.

9. $ 156 million

Wu Rubiao is an extremely wealthy Chinese tycoon who married off his daughter at the end of 2012. At the same time, Wu decided to give his daughter a rather large dowry: more than one billion yuan (156.37 million dollars). It consisted of many different gifts, including four boxes of gold, a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz, and a five million dollar share of Wu's company, Wanli, which is valued at $ 15 million. The bride married the love of her childhood after an eight-day wedding banquet.

10. The cities of Bombay and Tangier

Catherine of Braganza was a 17th century Portuguese princess who eventually married Charles II of England, becoming queen. She is often mistakenly credited with the emergence of tea in Britain, but it is worth noting that Catherine still tried to make the customs of her homeland fashionable in England. She also made the greatest gift to a new country when she married Charles II, bringing with her two cities as a dowry: Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Tangier. Tensions soon arose in Tangier, Portuguese residents accused British troops of looting and rape and began to leave the city en masse. Tangier was eventually abandoned by the British. Bombay held out under British rule for quite some time until India gained independence in 1947.

A wedding is a long-awaited event. But sometimes it is very difficult to predict how the solemn events will develop. And proof of that 8 celebrities who canceled their nuptials.