I don't think I signed up for that...
My other 'arf is one of them immigrants that come over here and steal all our jobs. So after we got married here in the UK, we went over to her home town to have another ceremony for her family and friends, who mostly couldn't travel to the first one.

Now, I'm a committed atheist, but she comes from a catholic country, and is (nominally) catholic herself. So the ceremony had some religious readings and so on - not in a church, but fulfilling the family's expectations for that kind of thing. Not a problem for me, it's just background noise. I even read out a prepared vow/passage, despite not speaking the language.

All fine and dandy, until suddenly, when my mind had wandered during a particularly long reading delivered in complicated Church Forrin, the entire crowd suddenly all did a Nazi salute.

Ohhh... Kay... I'm thinking, is there something I ought to know about these people? They're all rather, erm, dusky to be White Supremacists, surely? Then again, logic and racism are uneasy bedfellows at the best of times, so who knows...

Thankfully it turned out to be a catholic thing, and nothing to do with shiny boots and enforced showering.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Thu 1 Sep 2011, 17:42, 6 replies)

Which Catholic church does that one?
I'd been forced to go to a Catholic church once weekly for 15 years or so, and I've never seen anything of the sort.
( Ithyphallophobia, Thu 1 Sep 2011, 17:48, closed)

Must be the recent Pope.
I hear he has a penchant for Hugo Boss.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 1 Sep 2011, 18:09, closed)

It's Brazilian
but I have no idea if it's some particular denomination / subcult / franchise, or for that matter what it signifies.

Maybe they all just thought I was worth saluting...
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 10:46, closed)

On a slightly more serious note than my above comment.
Forrrin and religious!? How do you cope? I'm about to become a immigrant woman(and, hopefully, job)-stealer myself but I know it helps I have the same lack of religion as my GF and her family.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 1 Sep 2011, 18:18, closed)

Well the forrin thing is all part of life's rich tapestry, innit?
I mean, let's face it, the opposite sex are from a different country (planet) wherever they come from, aren't they?

As for the religious thing, it's not something that plays a big part in her life - she's catholic by cultural background, but not really practicing.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 10:50, closed)

Ah, fair enough.
Yeah, got to agree on them beng from another planet -- she's the first woman I've know i even vaguelly understnd.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 19:42, closed)