Question: how do you get the newlyweds to kiss at the party? Simple — chant "bitter" in Polish.

It's not simply a Polish tradition. In Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Koroviev, while in the export store with Behemoth,

bawled at the top of his lungs, twisting his mouth sarcastically, 'just look at him, in his smart lilac suit, all swollen with salmon, all stuffed with currency — and us, what aobut the likes of us?! . . . I'm bitter! Bitter, bitter!' Koroviev whailed, like the best man at an old-fashioned wedding.

The translators' end note reads, "There is an old Russian custom of shouting 'Bitter!' every now in then during the banquet after a wedding. The newlyweds are then expected to kiss so as to make it sweet."

And so it is at Polish weddings.

"Gorszka! Gorszka! Gorszka! Gorszka!"

Mwa.

And so it goes through the night. (Much more pleasant than kissing all the guests, though.)

With all the love and passion in the air, the logical thing to do was to dance.