Fashion passes, but a rusty residue remains: let's talk about the fate of wedding locks

Today, the presence of these symbols of the strength of the marriage union on the structures of the Pedestrian Bridge seems out of place. On both sides of the crossing, there are beautiful new embankments, but if you want to take a photo as a souvenir, be careful that the old rusty locks, the "guardians" of someone's family happiness, do not get into the frame.

For many years in Veliky Novgorod this was a mandatory attribute of the wedding ceremony - after the official registration of the family union in the registry office, the newlyweds went to the Pedestrian Bridge, where they sealed their union with a lock, adapting it to the metal railings of the crossing. The key was thrown into the waters of the Volkhov. Those who wanted, kept duplicates of the key as a souvenir.

From time to time, Gorkhoz workers had to cut off the locks to make room for new mechanisms. There was a case when a super-lock the size of a basin, located right on the pedestrian part of the bridge, was dismantled, attached with a chain to the railings (violation of the rules of improvement). They say that once a young man was noticed who tried to unfasten the lock of happiness with pliers, explaining that his marriage had broken up.

By the way, the tradition of sealing the feelings of two with a metal lock appeared about 20 years ago after the publication of a novel by an Italian author about a young couple who decided to hang a lock on a bridge and throw the key into the river in honor of perpetuating their love. This is how the tradition appeared, and immediately gained popularity in many cities around the world. In Veliky Novgorod, according to our observations, in recent years the fashion for such a tradition has begun to fade, which is evident from the condition of the locks - almost no new ones appear, and the old ones are increasingly rusting and do not decorate the place at all. The municipal institution "City Economy", which is in charge of the ferry, agrees with our observation.

"A pile of rusty locks is nothing but trouble, they create obstacles during bridge maintenance and block the observation bridges. The fashion has passed and it is probably time to simply remove this symbolism," Alexander NOVGORODSKY, deputy director of the Municipal Institution "City Economy", shared with the Novgorod online newspaper. When asked whether he had sealed his family union with a lock, the interlocutor answered with a laugh:

"Of course not! It doesn't work that way, the strength of a family and happiness depend on something completely different. My wife and I created our family 11 years ago and without any locks."

By the way, exactly 40 years ago, in 1985, they started building a Pedestrian Bridge in Novgorod. The project, of course, did not provide for structures to attach wedding locks to. We asked the opinion of Honorary Citizen of Veliky Novgorod Anatoly MUKHAREV , under whose leadership the team of Mostootryad 75 built the crossing.

"The load on the bridge from the locks is insignificant, 100 kilograms, no more. But they look completely unnecessary, there is no aesthetics, they just spoil the view, it seems to me. I do not believe in such a sign about the strength of marriage. Our family union is already 56 years old. And the family does not depend on the lock."

Our publication has previously raised the topic of wedding traditions and attributes. There was a proposal to install a special structure, the "Tree of Love", following the example of other cities, for those wishing to attach their own lock of happiness to it. And a place for such an art object will certainly be found in the park near the Palace of Weddings. Moreover, such a "tree of love" as a gift to the city was made by the masters of OOO "Teremok". Now this structure is on the manufacturer's demonstration site on Nekhinskaya Street.

What do you think, where is the place for wedding locks? You can leave comments in our VKontakte social network group

Svetlana Antonova

Photo by the author