i witnessed a bizarre and strange thing today.

A frenzied group of people stood at a bit of a distance as the two lead people were ceremoniously handed a long dagger.

The crowd seemed completely mesmerised by this ritual that was being carried out in front of them and started cheering and screaming, urging them to make the first cut.

Man and woman stood silently, holding the knife poised as if deciding which of them would make the first move.

Eventually, they seemed to decide upon the male and so he grabbed the blade and looked around, as if to gain the endorsement of this throng of dressed up collaborators, who inched closer to the table, as if mentally calling for him to go through with it.

Looking at the woman, he smiled at her as if to indicate what was about to happen next, and gripping the knife firmly in his hand, he invited her to join in, and so she too grabbed hold of the handle, and as one they moved together.

…and cut the wedding cake.

Weirdest. Tradition. Ever. 

To view it a different way, about a hundred of us gathered around a table and watched as the newly wedded couple collectively cut a piece of cake. Then we cheered. i’m not too sure why. Have these people not ever cut cake before? Was this a particularly difficult cake to cut? Was there some kind of story buried in either or both of their pasts that involved the inability to cut cake? And this moment now was a collective triumph of past failure and the sure signs of future success to come…

THAT BY ANY OTHER NAME

Just think about it for a minute and try and imagine any other scenario where this kind of behaviour would be considered normal in any way.

Everyone does it and so we all cheer when it happens… BUT NO ONE KNOWS WHY.

It is so bizarre to me. It is one of the weirdest parts of a wedding, and weddings have some pretty strange parts [don’t get me started on the garter or the car mutilation] and yet we continue to do it.

We gather, they cut, we cheer, and everyone leaves feeling satisfied that the cake was cut well in a suitable fashion. No cause for alarm for this marriage, people, for these two individuals, as one, were successful in the joint cutting of the first piece of wedding cake.

Weirdos. The lot of us.