Pre-Nup Party

Bachelor party traditions from around the globe.

Saying farewell to your single days isn’t just an excuse for debauchery. OK, maybe it is, but it’s been a staple of tying the knot for as long as the ceremony has existed. The modern bachelor party retains elements from ancient traditions that filtered from around the globe. It’s said that warriors in ancient Sparta held the first stag parties — feasts where the groom would pledge loyalty to his comrades on the night before his wedding, while symbolically turning his back on the single life.

While that may be the oldest source, dating back to the fifth century B.C., early Europeans’ attempts at weddings by capture were always preceded by a party, assembling all the leader’s friends, including his right-hand man or "best man," who would help him steal his wife away. (Nowadays, abduction tends to work the other way: Plenty of grooms are whisked miles from home by their heavy-drinking buddies; finding themselves in a strange city on their wedding day, with a train ticket in their pocket, ensures they’ll never forget their entrance at the church.)

Around the world, those nights out take on all kinds of superstitious importance. In Morocco, the groom, who spends the night treated and addressed as a sultan, is followed by his "court" through the streets of the city, while gunshots frighten away evil spirits. Though the kind of dancers you’ll probably find at a bachelor party nowadays aren’t necessarily appreciated as good omens, in Egypt it’s common for both the bride and groom to place their hands on the stomach of a belly dancer to promote fertility and good luck. (Belly-dancing is itself a custom that reputedly began with poorer brides who would dance in the marketplace for their dowries, stitching the coins they received around the hems of their dresses.)

The financial aspect of marriage was a consideration for the groom as well. In medieval England, the bachelor would choose to spend the night before a wedding gambling with his friends; the money he won would be stored away to gamble with after he was married, rather than risk the wrath of his new wife by gambling their savings.

Not all rituals followed by the groom are thinly disguised chances for a party. On the Scottish Isle of Orkney, customary "fit-washing," or foot washing, takes place on the night before the wedding, while Jewish grooms might visit the mikveh for a ritual bath. Nevertheless, the abiding tradition of a get-together crosses all borders: Nowadays, you’re just as likely to see a bachelor party out for the night in New Delhi as in Philadelphia.