During a recent 16 month project in the Ukraine, I was struck by a little known phenomena to the United Kingdom but quite an important trend in many European countries.
Love padlocks (also known as Love Locks) are a custom by which padlocks are affixed to a fence, gate, bridge or similar public fixture to symbolize the couple’s everlasting love.
As you can see in my photograph, it is a simple but effective demonstration of love between two people and a hope for eternal love sealed by the padlock.
From my limited research, Love Padlocks have existed for quite some time, though there are no certain sources for their origin, they started appearing in the early 2000’s.
The Love Padlocks remind me that it shows that there are differences between cultures in this fast-paced and, increasingly, integrated world and, at the same time, an opportunity for growing connections between the individual couples and with other’s across the world.