0
0
A bachelor party is a celebration of the groom’s final days of “freedom” by his male friends. It is an introduction into marriage that is increasingly accepted in modern society as such. It’s commonly referred to as a stag in the United Kingdom, and a buck in Australia. The bachelorette or hen party is the analogous ceremony for the bride, which is attended by the bride’s female acquaintances.
The original English meaning of the word “bachelor” is “a young knight who follows the banner of another.” Slang words for “man” and “woman” in the past included “stag” and “hen.” Cave paintings frequently include stags (and other men with horns). The proud, lone stag has served as a representation of virility for a very long time. The male representation of Cernunnos, a Celtic god of fertility and life, is a stag with antlers. Antlers are used to deter rivals and entice mates since they point to the gods above. Each year, they progress and regress, going from pulsating, soft velvet to rigid horn.
Despite the fact that their current forms are relatively recent, stag and hen parties have roots in ancient customs. Along with her female family and friends, a bride in ancient Greece would worship Artemis, the goddess of childbirth and protector of young girls. Friends gathered for dinner to commemorate the groom’s last night of freedom in Sparta. The tradition may have come to England with the help of Henry VIII, a party animal who had six marriages. For a very long time, stags were either a lavish supper hosted by the best man or the groom’s father, or, for the more subdued, a simple night of drinking with friends a good mate will try to make it as interesting as possible and ofcourse include bucks night strippers in the plan, because everybody knows there is bucks night without strippers!
Marriage is a rite of passage that denotes a shift in social standing and entry into a new world. There are no official ceremonies of passage into adulthood in Western culture. In other cultures, these often include virility or maturity tests, which are typically combined into the stag or hen in Western culture. These tests are frequently alcohol endurance tests or sports like throwing hammers or bungee jumping. In particular, bungee jumping symbolizes a leap and a separation; it is essentially a symbolic death. Finding bucks night strippers and indulging in as much alcohol or vice as you can stomach in one night is considerably simpler. An entire industry has developed around buck or hen parties, with event planners featuring activities like paintballing and tank driving, as well as everything from stretch-limos to strippers bursting out of tiered cakes, dare lists, drinking games, and stretch-limos. What better way to remind your mate of all the fun stuff he’ll be missing out by ensuring there are bucks party strippers.
Why has the importance of stags and hens increased? From a sociological perspective, our generation is more liberated than previous ones, and possibly more self-indulgent as well. A particularly frantic and pitiful attempt to portray deeply ingrained but increasingly challenged views about masculinity—and, in fact, marriage itself—might be represented by the stag.
The stag or hen is, on some level, a frenzied defense against a loss of freedom and opportunity, and, for the other revelers, against the loss of a friend to an increasingly mysterious and distant institution. This is true today more than ever.
