Why do people drive their cars into the water during the holiday season?

Many of you have asked Gogo why so many people drive their cars into the water at this time?

Driving into the water is actually an old Scottish tradition, most notably from the region known as Strathclyde on the eastern coast north of Northumbria. It started during the 9th century Viking raids along these coasts, when the preferred villager response was ‘throw your good stuff into the water’. This became a regular tradition at this time of year when villagers would encourage sanctified mothers-in-law to bind a burning Yuletide log to their wagon or cart and ride them off the local cliffs into the waters below. This activity was captured in a Nordic Saga by poet Thorbjorn Hornklofi:

Did you hear in Hafrsford,
How armies battled,
How noble King Harold,
Fought Kjotvi the Wealthy?
Ships sailed southward,
Thirsting for battle,
Prow-heads snarling,
And Strathclyde Bentleys with old ladies into the water.

The tradition was exported to the locals as the Vikings settled the region along the Dnieper River in western Russia. Of course, Russians being poor, efficient, and expedient in nature skipped the vehicle part and merely threw the mothers-in-laws into the river. These events gave rise to the modern saying - сохранить универсал, использовать камень, бросить старую леди, выпить водки  – loosely translated as “save the wagon, use a rock, throw the old lady, drink some vodka".

Russians picked a single location for this activity, and after 100 years announced the completion of 'Happy Marriage' Dnieper River bridge in 1041 A.D.

Further,  it is this tradition that accounts for the conversion of Russians from Roman Catholicism (as imported by the Vikings) to the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church, at that time, allowed for easier and more frequent divorce. More divorce, more mothers-in-laws, faster bridge building.