8 Courting Traditions From Around The World

Love is all around, but it’s certainly not the same in every place in the world.

1. Under the Blankets

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Young Chinese Dai men wrap the girls they want to woo in red blankets.

2. Spooning

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Welsh men gift hand-carved spoons to the woman they want to… ahem… spoon.

3. The Apple of My… Arms?

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Austrian women dance with slices of apples lodged in their armpits and present them to the man they adore. Want to guess what the lucky male does with the fruit?

4. Thimble Me

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Instead of a ring, the Puritan’s future brides would receive a thimble from her fianceé, a super-useful wedding present, right?

5. Love Shack

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In Cambodia’s Kreung tribe, parents build huts for their daughters to explore sex before marriage. Talk about testing the waters.

6. Secret Gloves

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English gentlemen would give a pair of gloves to their loved ones, who would wear them to church on Sunday if they loved them back. I think they earn some points for subtlety.

7. Only With Adult Supervision

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In Finland, bachelors would signal that they liked a girl by putting a knife in an empty sheath on their lover’s girdle. Keeping his blade meant that she liked him back.

8. A Day of Love, Roses, and Books

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Sant Jordi (April 23rd) is Catalonia’s version of Valentine’s Day, a day when men give women roses and receive books in return. What a steal!