Weddings are often structured according to religious traditions, something which irreligious Americans have been trying to overcome by creating new wedding formats and vows which don't presume lots of different religious beliefs. Americans, though, seem to have it easy because elsewhere in the world religious beliefs can lead to all sorts of bizarre contortions.

The Friendly Atheist describes some of the convoluted complications that can affect Indian wedding plans:

Bollywood star (and former Miss World) Aishwarya Rai is engaged to Abhishek Bachchan. (That’s like the Indian celebrity equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.)

Aishwarya is said to be a manglik. This means she was born at a time when “Mars [was] in the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house of the Vedic astrology lunar chart.”

If two mangliks get married, it’s ok.

But if a manglik marries a non-manglik, all hell breaks loose.

Guess what Abhishek is…?

According to some *brilliant* astrologers, the marriage of a manglik girl and non-manglik boy could result in the death of the male. Because, you know, Mars is evil like that.

(Oh, it gets better.)

How do you fix this problem?

Aishwarya will have to marry a tree.

After this, things start getting really strange — you should follow the link to find out what happens next. Perhaps it's good that while religious Americans also tend to accept astrology to varying degrees, they don't incorporate astrology into their lives to the extent that people in India do. Here we have a demonstration of just how irrational beliefs can lead to incredibly irrational behavior.

Keep in mind that, when you get right down to it, these beliefs aren't any more irrational than the sorts of beliefs common to American Christians. These beliefs and behaviors might seem more irrational to the average American because they are so unusual and so outside the normal experiences of most Americans, but being "unusual" doesn't mean "more irrational."