1/18/2003: Rolling groom

In the US, it's tradition to throw handfuls of rice grains at a new groom and bride as they leave the wedding chapel.

In Matsunoyamamachi, Japan, they have a better tradition - they throw the groom. Down a snowy hillside.

The tradition developed centuries ago, when locals gave the same hurl to an out-of-towner who had the nerve to marry a local gal.

Are you sure that he wasn't just standing on top of that hill, and smushed wedding cake all over the bride's face? That justifies sending him ass-over-teakettle (now what's the origin of THAT little gem?) down a damn mountain.

Especially if he gets any of the cake on the dress.

I wanna have a wedding like that. It could be, like, an EXTREME WEDDING! No Fear, Dude! We'd be married in mid-air, like, after base-jumping with the minister from a microwave tower! That way we'd have the microwave burns to memorialize the event! Then my groomsmen would throw me down a hillside, only without snow! Yeah! And I'd have to rock-ski down it! The ring-bearer would be on a bungee cord, too. That way he just jump in, hand me the ring, and then go flying! Wild! TO THE EXTREEEEEME! SURRRGE!

that figures

You'd *have* to be rolling to keep a smile on your face while being thrown off a cliff at your own wedding party.

I believe the tradition had been to throw the bride. They changed this, as wearing white, it took some 3 - 4 weeks to find the bride in the snow.

now you can get married absolutely anywhere you want ...

Thanks to the amazing, new, inflatable church!!!

Nothing in the advertising indicates whether an inflatable bride is included.