Earlier this year, we had a discussion about divorce rituals from around the world and positive ways that people from different cultures cope with the end of a marriage. As some of you may recall, one of the “rites of passage” we mentioned in that blog post was the idea of throwing a divorce party to celebrate the occasion.

Whether that strikes you as callous (because there are minor children affected or for some other reason) or perfectly sensible (because the marriage was making everyone’s life miserable anyway) … divorce parties are becoming more and more common around the country.

In Los Angeles, one party planning business owner says that despite the recession, she is putting on three times as many “unbridled showers” today than she was just 10 years ago when the economy was much stronger. A Las Vegas party-planning company tells a similar story with a 70 percent increase in divorce party bookings caused by “more people finding out about celebrating divorce by throwing a wild party or a laid-back night out with a group of friends.”

So, for readers who may be interested, what exactly have other people done for these divorce events? In some cases, it’s just a quiet dinner with friends. Other people have booked dance outings, club nights or even more raucous events complete with accoutrements ranging from divorce cakes and voodoo dolls to shears or even barbeque grills that the former bride or groom can use to symbolic destroy the clothes he or she got married in.