Locking Your Love: What Does it Mean, Where Did it Come From?

What do Kanye West and a WWI Serbian tale have in common? One may be a little more poetic than the other, but nonetheless, they speak to the lovers of the world fighting to keep their bond locked up (or down).

I'm not loving you, the way I wanted to What I had to do, had to run from you I'm in love with you, but the vibe is wrong And that haunted me, all the way home So ya never know, never never know Never know enough, til it's over love Til we lose control, system overload Screaming no no no, no no I'm not loving you, the way I wanted to See I wanna move, but can't escape from you So I keep it low, keep a secret code So everybody else don't have to know

So keep ya love lockdown, ya love lockdown Keeping ya love lockdown, ya love lockdown Now keep ya love lockdown, ya love lockdown Now keep ya love lockdown, you lose

In Kanye's 2008 hit, "Love Lockdown", he gives a warning to everyone who may be flirting with danger, to keep your love lockdown.

Love lock bridges are predominately all over Europe and have now infiltrated their way to various cities around the world.

One of the most famous love lock bridges is, fittingly, in the heart of the city of love and romance, Paris. However, much to many lovers' dismay, the padlocks from the Pont de Artes pedestrian bridge were taken down in 2015 after 45 tons (which is equivalent to about 20 elephants, by the way; a lot of love). Coincidentally, divorce rates spiked during that time...not really, but wouldn't that be something?

Hundreds of thousands of lovers have turned their abstract feeling of love into a physical symbol by locking their love to iron-clad bridges around the world. But, do you know the where the tradition of locking love to a bridge all began?

For Pont de Artes, it's love story with locks began around 2008. A legend began to spread, by locking 'your love' with a padlock onto the bridge with your lover and tossing the key into the river below, your love would last forever. This legend spread like wild fire and couples completed the romantic gesture by etching their initials into the metal and throwing the key to the depths of the water below their feet.

Rome, Italy can attribute the beginning of their love lock history on the Ponte Mivio, to the book I Want You by Federico Moccia in 2006.

It's possible Kanye West pulled the inspiration for his big hit, Love Lockdown, from the tale where love locks originally began in a small village in Serbia.

Love locks began to appear around the world in mass amounts beginning in the early 2000's. But, the first love lock story can be traced all the way back to 100 years ago during WWI, to a bridge in Serbia, Most Ljubavi. Literally translated, it means, the Bridge of Love.

As the tale goes, a young woman, Nada, born in Vrnajačka Banja, Serbia fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. Soon after they were engaged, Relja was shipped out to war in Greece. While away on duty, he fell in love with a local Greek woman and consequentially broke off the engagement with Nada back home.

Nada was never able to recover from the blow of the heartbreak Relja caused her and died from her love loss. Other women from the birthplace of Nada and Relja heard the tragic story and did not want to fall to the same fate Nada had met. To combat the fortune, they began etching the initials of themselves and their loved ones onto padlocks and locking them to the Most Ljubavi (Bridge of Love); the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet. Their hopes were that by making this gesture, it would protect their own love from ending in the same sad fate as Nada.

Let's all learn a lesson: if you don't lockdown your love, the relationship is doomed. Just ask Kanye and Nada.

You can no longer lock your love to the famous Paris bridge, for years it remained high on tourist's to-do list; climb the Eiffel Tower, visit the Louvre, attach a padlock to Love Lock Bridge. However, the trend still remains around the world on other bridges such as Seoul, South Korea, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Cologne, Germany (pictured above, 2nd), Prague, Czech Republic, Frankfurt, Germany (pictured above, 1st), Rome, Italy, New York, USA and I'm sure many other places.

#lovelock #bridge #love #legend