Remember Calamity Jane, when Doris Day , racing from behind a rock, to stand in front of a tree, flying off to lean against another tree, all the while singing away about her secret love for Wild Bill Hickok?

No doubt, there would be a time when Bill and Jane would reenter the little woodland, or whatever it was, and Bill, unsheathing his Bowie knife, would slash out a heart in the bark of Black Hills White Spruce, or Ponderosa Pine, and whittle out Bill loves Jane XXX.

Many years later Jane and Bill would come back to see if they could still find the heart, and laugh at their youthful follies.

Many of such innocent pastimes are well and truly over. Nor is anyone encouraging girls and boys to be running around with knives and slashing away at trees no matter for what romantic reasons.

But couples, all over the world, are still running around trying to express their sentiment in a public way.

For example, there is an old Russian wedding tradition where a couple, after exchanging their wedding vows, take a padlock to some public place, like a bridge, and after attaching it, throw away the key into the water. This symbolizing the unbreakable bond of marriage. Often the padlocks will have inscribed on it the spouses' names together with the wedding date.

In many large cities of Asia, it's lovers, and not married couples, who are attaching padlocks to popular places to proclaim publicly their commitment to each other. Some of these places are specifically designed and built for just this purpose. Couples in love will bring with them one padlock with two keys. After attaching the padlock, they will each take a key. Should they break up sometime in the future, one or both of them will come back and ceremoniously take off the padlock. This is deemed as a visual symbol of farewell and lets get on with the rest of our lives.

While in some cities the tradition is put up with by the authorities, there are some who are getting extremely unsympathetic to the lover. On the Ponte Vechio, around the bust of Cellini, lovers put locks with their initials on the railings that go around the statue. The practice is beginning to annoy the authorities since the weight of the locks is undermining the structure itself. Despite the fact that the padlocks are getting removed ever so often, and lovers are threatened with all sorts of penalties, because the place is so associated with lovers, as fast as the city fathers get rid of one lot of padlocks, hundreds of lovers are cueing up to put up some more.

Vlady Peters

Vlady Peters is an Australian Civil Marriage Celebrant performing weddings, naming, renenewal of vows and commitment ceremonies both for Australian citizens and for overseas couples visiting friends and relatives in Australia.

She is the author of two traditionally published books, "The Complete Book of Australian Weddings" and "The Small Organisation Handbbook" and is in the process of releasing two ebooks dealing with weddings and honeymoons.

Her major interest is research into customs and traditions of weddings.

By going back to the roots of customs, she believes couples can more clearly differentiate between what is essential in a wedding ceremony, and what is merely a personal preference.

This allows them to choose a ceremony reflecting their own situation within the framework of legal requirements.

Vlady has a bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Government, and has studied the writing of novels and romances. She has written children picture books as well as novels.

She is a member of Queesland Civil Marriage Celebrants - the largest Civil Marriage Celebrants Association in Australia - as well as member of Celebrants' Training Association.

She is also a member of Australian Authors, as well as Romance Writers Association where for a number of years she was the Convenor of the prestigious Emma Darcy Award - Australia's leading Lady of Romance.