I was just thinking about it the other day, and realize that maybe I watch a lot of TV, but there is some TV that you can actually learn from.  For example, I was watching a program about wedding customs in other countries.  It was really interesting, because I really didn't know a lot about how other people around the world got married.

One theme that kept coming up was breaking plates at a wedding.  Now it would be over my dead body that I let anybody smash my Lenox autumn china pattern, but it seems like breaking all of the dishes in your house is what you have to do before you get married.  I saw that in Europe, both the Greeks and the Germans had some sort of ritual.  The program told me that in Germany it was considered good luck to have broken glass around.  The evening before the wedding, friends and family would come over to their house and smash anything that would break into small shards.  The downer of this was that it was the bride and the groom who would have to clean up the mess.  I can think of at least a hundred other things I would rather be doing on the night before my wedding than sweeping up a whole bunch of glass.

Other wedding traditions were things like dowries.  This is a well-known tradition, but in this show, they helped to explain how much money each of the bride’s families would get.  Can you imagine selling off your daughter for livestock or even a couple of $20 bills?  I know, I know, it's different in other countries, but it's still interesting to think about it.

It's interesting to learn about other customs and other cultures.  But the more I learn about it, the happier I am for the culture that I was raised in.