Locks of love

With so much on the news and on our minds about terrorism and safety and violence, it's time for a post about love. Wow, that sounds cheesy. I mean it though, I am going to tell you about locks of love.

No, this post has nothing to do with wigs or donating hair. I have not had long enough hair to do that since... ever. Though based on my experiences of getting it cut in Germany, growing it to my ankles doesn't sound like a bad idea.

This post is about padlocks. They look like this:

All over the world, people who are in love put these padlocks on bridges and throw the key in the water below, signifying that they are locked together forever. I had never seen them before we moved to Germany, but they are on five continents. Here's a list of locations.

One explanation is that the custom comes from the Italian Novel I Want You, which was later turned into a film. The explanation I like better is this:

In Serbia just before WWII, a young school teacher named Nada fell in love with an officer named Relja. After they committed to each other Relja went to war in Greece where he fell in love with a local woman from Corfu. As a consequence, Relja and Nada broke off their engagement. Nada never recovered from that devastating blow, and after some time she died due to heartbreak from her unfortunate love. As young girls from Nada's town wanted to protect their own loves, they started writing down their names, together with the names of their loved ones, on padlocks and affixing them to the railings of the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet.

I got that story from Wikipedia, so it must be true.

Hannover's locks are at the park behind our Rathaus (above) and at the Maschsee, the big lake that I talk about sometimes. I am sure that the monstrous and scary fish that live in the Maschsee eat the keys and have bellies full of metal. That will make them even heavier and more capable of dragging me down to the bottom when I do the Maschsee triathlon this year.

Remember these guys?

No, Brian and I have not engraved a padlock and stuck it on a bridge for all time. We have no plans to do so. It's cheesy. Besides, Brian thinks Greek women are swarthy so I don't have much to worry about.

As you'll see from the photos of the padlocks, Spring has arrived in Hannover.
Sorry, my dear Midwesterners. Your winter will end some day. Until then, I will be riding my bike and gloating just a little... ok maybe a lot, but I'll feel guilty about it. And beneath my helmet, my hair will be quickly approaching ponytail length, but wig-making length is going to take a while.