And who does Mama teach to mend and tend and fix,
Preparing me to marry whoever Papa kiss?

The daughter, the daughter! Tradition!

The story:

I've known the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack for a very long
time, since my childhood, my mom would play it often, including
the song "Tradition". I never sung the song out loud to anyone
but I'd whisper the lyrics to myself. I only realized in the past few
months I had been saying "whoever papa kiss". I used to think
there might be some logic to it, but only today at age 22 did I
realize there is none. This bit is obviously about arranged
weddings. What this assumes then is a tradition of the DAD
kissing the potential partner for their daughters??To find out
what, if they're a good kisser? The image of the dad lightly
kissing each suitor and then shaking his head going "no no...not
right..." is so absurd in my head right now
Or does it assume that the dad goes out on dates with these
potential suitors and whoever he kisses is the one his daughter
should marry?? I don't know...