A bachelor party (in the United States and in Canada), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia),[1] is a party held for or arranged by a man who is shortly to enter marriage.
The party is usually planned by the groom's friends or family.
The first references to Western stag nights in the Oxford English Dictionary date to the 19th century.[2] Traditionally, stag nights involved a black tie banquet hosted by the father of the groom that included a toast in honour of the groom and bride.[3] Since the 1980s, some bachelor parties in the United States have involved vacationing to a foreign destination,[3] or have featured female company such as strippers or topless waitresses.
- ^ "10 Great Bucks Night Ideas". 2014. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
- ^ Bradshaw, Graham; Bishop, Tom; Tetsuo (2007). Special Section, Updating Shakespeare. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 174. ISBN 9780754690139.
- ^ a b Meaghan (16 June 2009). "A Brief History of Bachelor Parties". Time. Archived from the original on 1 November 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
In the past, a bachelor party could commonly involve a black-tie dinner hosted by the groom's father, with toasts to the groom and the bride. The more recent traditions of hazing, humiliation and debauchery – often consuming entire weekends and involving travel to an exotic destination such as Las Vegas or its nearest available facsimile – became a staple of bad '80s sex comedies.