The Mysterious Ten Ten Ten Case

Here is the scene of the crime.

Sandra and I arrived at the town square in Stein on the Danube just after noon on Sunday and were seated at the tables at the Rathaus cafe (with the red umbrellas) for lunch.

As we arrived, a bride and groom emerged from the Rathaus (town hall) and proceeded to the centre of the town square to toast themselves and (maybe) 20 guests. Then, the bells on the church started pealing and all "marched" the 30 or so feet into the church.

This was followed by another bride and groom exiting the Rathaus to the centre of the square to have wedding photos taken.

I said to Sandra "Isn't that strange! We almost never have weddings in Canada on a Sunday. Why don't you take a picture?". She didn't think it was appropriate.

Then, after 30 minutes, the church bells began to peal and the second bride and groom plus friends went inside.

This was followed by yet another bride and groom plus friends exiting the Rathaus to have wedding photos taken. Twenty minutes later, the church bells began to ring out and into the church the third party went.

The question is why do the Austrians line up so many weddings at half hour intervals on a Sunday?

This is a really hard question for old retired folks who can barely keep track of what day it is rather than what date it is. It was only when we got to Vienna and remarked on the assembly line of weddings we had witnessed the day before that one of my former colleagues looked at us and said "There are numerous stories in the papers of the large number of weddings that took place yesterday because people wanted to be married on October 10, 2010. That way, they can remember they were married on '10-10-10'".

Who knew? If we had known, we might have taken some pictures of the brides and grooms rather than wait for the town square to clear to take this picture!