Wife carrying (Finnish: eukonkanto or akankanto, Swedish: kärringkånk, Estonian: naisekandmine) is a sport in which male competitors race while each carrying a female teammate. The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time. The sport was first introduced at Sonkajärvi, Finland.
Several types of carry may be practised: piggyback, fireman's carry (over the shoulder), or Estonian-style (the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist).
Major wife-carrying competitions are held in Sonkajärvi, Finland (where the prize depends on the wife's weight in beer); Monona, Wisconsin; Minocqua, Wisconsin; Sunday_River in Newry,Maine and Marquette, Michigan.
The North American Wife Carrying Championships take place every year on Columbus Day Weekend in October at Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, Maine.
Read more about Wife Carrying: History, Now in Asia, Rules, Champions, Trivia
Famous quotes containing the words wife and/or carrying:
“When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.”
—Bible: Hebrew Deuteronomy 24:5.
“One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn’t every nation have its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)