Some people we know are getting married, and I'm guessing they will have Bachelor and Bachelorette parties . They are Swiss, and I'm just wondering what to expect ? ( tradition wise )
I've seen groups of Bachelor's and Bachelorette's out on the town before, and it looks like they wear costumes.
How long do the parties last ? Should you bring a gift ?
I don't know, but I can tell you this - no chance of outrageously bad public place drunken behaviour with the bride and/or groom getting arrested for indecency - as I saw so much of in the UK and Australia and USA. And if the Swiss are doing that naughty stuff, tell me where - so I know where to avoid!
Bachelor/Bachelorette parties in the US sense (or a hen night for the Brits) are not that Swiss. The concept only arrived here with Hollywood. Swiss tradition would be a "Junggesellenabschied" or "Polterabend" which mostly involves a lot of alcohol, no pink stretch limos or stripper (the concept of strippers is in general pretty unknown in central Europe as prostitution is legal...). Some wear some silly costumes, but that is some imported idea as well.
There might be some local traditions, but nothing major. In northen Germany will the friends of the guy burn his pants and bury them, where I am from you smash some table ware in front of the house of the bride to bring them good luck. But it's not as wild as drunk British women on a hen night in Spain or something...
I dare say until about 10, maybe 15 years ago, no one here threw any Bachelor/Bachelorette parties. Same like no one "celebrated" Halloween. US stuff that kind of spilled over here.
They're usually harmless, but actually yeah, there may be a stripper involved *yawn* (saw that at a bachelorette party), then there's usually some pretty boring semi-embarrassing "fun games" in a busy street somewhere nearby, sometimes in costumes, then a bit of drinking, eating, whatnot. That's probably it.
I didn't do any bachelorette thing, but my husband got one. His friends shaved one of his legs (!), made him wear a blonde wig and inflatable fake boobs and bum, and he had to go ask coins to people with a kid's piggy bank. He got close to 400.-!!!
I had the distinct pleasure of going to a northern German wedding in a small hamlet once. Honestly, those people know how to have fun! After the vows in the chapel in town, the reception party was held in the largest barn in the village, which had been equipped with rental floorboards to turn it into a dance floor, and festooned with decorations and a separate playroom for the kids (genius!!). The festivities included:
- a whole roast suckling pig
- around 100 liters of schnaps and I don't know how many kegs of beer
- an ample dessert bar
- the groom's pants being forcefully removed and set on fire ("to show him who wears the pants now")
- the bride's shoe nailed to a beam in the barn ("so she can't run away")
- smashing old pottery on a rock for good luck (someone brought an old toilet, too)
- *another* "official" wedding cake
- the bride's mother not letting you sit for more than 5 minutes, as there was dancing to be done!
To hell with a fairy-tale wedding. If I ever manage to bamboozle someone into marrying me, I want a north German wedding! (I'll just have my German wedding on a beach in the tropics, thank you!)
This one time, I was having dinner at an outdoor restaurant when a hen party strolled by and started to undress me. They got away with my socks, which they later brought back again.