Posted on 06/28/2006 9:32:59 AM PDT by rhema
My kids want me to stay home tonight so that they can play Hop on Pop. But I'm hoping that my wife and I will somehow manage to hop on a plane to Finland instead.
Finland, you see, will play host this weekend to the 11th annual World Championship of Wife-Carrying, a bizarre sports festival held in a country that loves peculiar competitions. (The Finns also hold annual contests in mosquito-killing, sand-skiing, beer-barrel rolling, and "air guitar" playing.)
In the wife-carrying competition, men physically transport their spouses over a grueling 831-foot obstacle course that includes log hurdles, hairpin curves, changing terrain, and a four-foot-deep pool of cold water. Husbands can haul their brides any way they wish--piggyback, fireman's carry, over-the-transom style--but they are severely penalized if they drop their wives at any point.
After everyone has finished the course, the husband with the fastest time wins an array of prizes, including--get this--the equivalent of his wife's weight in beer!
Now, the World Championship of Wife-Carrying certainly confirms the old adage that real life is often stranger than fiction. But it also confirms my growing suspicion that frivolous play frequently deserves some fairly serious attention and contemplation. For leisure pursuits--the games we play, the music we listen to, the films we watch--often reveal a great deal about what captures our imagination and brings us joy in life. About what enlivens the true spirit of our "authentic self."
The folks who work in Hollywood's dream factories understand this. So too do the philosophers, playwrights and poets who have long maintained that our modes of music and dance often bring into public view the barbarous condition of our souls.
What, then, are we to make of the World Championship of Wife-Carrying? Why exactly do thousands of people traipse to a remote village in
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Finland BUMP!
By whom? Their wife?
This contest would be quite telling. How the man transports his wife from point A to point B, is directly related to how much he values his wife...
Does this replace dwarf-tossing?
Well, these guys are married - major shrinkage is not an issue.
carry her!
Ok, now that I've seen you picture, I'm thinking this could be fun w/ a few minor modifications...
AAAAHHHH MY EYES!
lol
Ich bin ein fraulufter.
I'd have a tough time making the Finnish line...
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