Instant widowhood.

• Position: France

In France, it's possible to marry the dead, thanks to a law that turns the vow "till death us do part" on its head. "I had what you can call a perfect wedding," says Christelle Demichel, 34, who in February carried a bouquet of yellow roses as she wed her deceased fiance in Nice. [He was killed by a drunk driver.] The law that allowed the groomless wedding dates to 1959, when the Malpasset Dam in southern France burst, claiming hundreds of lives. When President Charles de Gaulle visited the stricken area, a young woman pleaded with him to allow her...