Marriage Before Christ and Today

Marriage is a significant part of Judaism bringing together a woman and man under God’s reign. It is the mitzvah (122) “To marry a wife by means of ketubah and keddushin” (Deut 22:13), all Jewish adherents see marriage as a necessity in order to obey God and to experience the fullness of life. In Genesis God says: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” It is a link between individuals and the wider community as it recognises two individuals coming together, celebrated by the wider community. Also the marriage ceremony itself contains symbolic significance to Judaism, conveying Jewish beliefs through symbols, actions and words.

There are various customs and traditions for marriage in United States based on varying factors such as culture, social norms, and religion. There are no unique practices because most of practices are derived from other cultures. The marriage practices and customs revolve around wedding attire, before wedding, wedding ceremony, reception, and after wedding. White bridal dresses are worn with a veil in weddings. However, those not wedding for the first time can choose any color of bridal dresses apart from white. Before a wedding, most have bridal showers where the bride receives gifts from the guests. Preparation takes considerable time to plan a wedding. In a wedding, groomsmen and bridesmaids are included (Lilian, 2013). The bride’s father walks the bride down the aisle to indicate approval of the groom. “The typical 21st century wedding can now feature a supporting cast of stepparents, half-siblings, Dad's new girlfriend and her kids, the bride's first stepfather and his new wife, and sometimes even the bride and groom's ex-spouses” Wedding cakes are used and couples kiss as a form of endearment. Cakes are seen symbols of fertility. It is a custom for the newly married woman to

Usually, falling in love is what leads a person to marriage, but in this era that was not the case. Most weddings were regulated by the parents so that both families would benefit (“Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings” 1). In other words, a daughter of a landowner would most likely marry a man

In Jewish tradition the father has final say over the marriage of his daughters. Sarah's sisters all had chances to marry the ones they loved, but because of their father, they ended up being married for her father's political reasons. Sarah saw

     Marriage is looked at as a life long venture. If a man wants to marry a certain woman he has to ask both his and her parents for their permission. If both parents agree then a priest is told. On the morning of the ceremony the priest prays asking for a sign as to whether a couple should marry or not. To get the sign that he is looking for he holds two roots in his hand. If the roots moved together in his hand then it was O.K for a couple to marry. But if the roots did not move or moved together and one died then the marriage would be forbidden. When the roots came together with no problem, the ceremony went on. The priest prayed over the couple and warned them about being unfaithful because if they did then they would go to a “bad place” when they died.1 Divorce did happen but was a rare occurrence. All that had to be done was the dividing of blankets. Priests were allowed to marry but the woman had to be of utmost character. She must be a virgin. She could not be a widow or divorced. Also this marriage has to be approved by seven counselors. Once a couple is married then they can focus on having children.

The ceremony starts with the husband’s side; he goes and ask two men and a best man to go with him to his soon to be wife’s house and ask her parents for her hand in marriage. This process can take up to 4 to 6 hours. Reason being is because the talk about how much the girls “head” is worth, in other words herself, and talk about how much the cow has to be worth. The next step would be the husband having a ceremony at his house where they have a party welcoming the wife for the first day. Then she would stay with the husband for 3 days and 2 nights.

We notice that both the bride and groom did not make any arrangement. They did not have any choice but to follow their parents’ will. Once married, women had to serve their husband and their family. They often became a sort of servant to their mother-in-law, to whom they had the obligation to obey. Families were omnipresent in the marriage; it was a very strict marriage where women had no other choice but to listen to men of her family.

Christian: For a Christian wedding, the bride's family and friends are positioned on the left side of the aisle in order for them to see a clearer view of the bride as she faces the altar. The parents and close relatives are always in the front and may have benches reserved for the people most closed to them. Normally, parents are seated in the front, grandparents are seated in the second row, and any other honored or important guests are seated behind them or as close to the front as possible.

Their families administered the wedding process before, during and after the ceremony. It appeared to be based upon who has the most land, how much money everyone had and more about the profit from the marriage. Marriages never developed off of the husband and wife’s feelings until the late eighteen hundreds, soon ideals began to shift. Soon people started detecting an increase of love, as explained in Colonial Williamsburg, “With the rise of the affectionate family, arranged marriages became a thing of the past. While parents expected to be consulted and offered advice or criticism freely, men and women chose their own marriage partners, and parents usually accepted their children’s choices,” (Maurer). Weddings exhibited less conventional traditions as the years moved on and, the parents became less and less involved in the decision making of their child’s spouse. This upset the parents because they did not collect any profit from their child’s marriage arrangement. While both partner’s choice became important during the wedding, the ceremony still placed many restrictions towards how women could act, and how they performed

The Hindu marriage usually takes in the bride’s hometown or city. The venue is generally a town or community hall, or a hotel, depending on the budget of the bride’s family. There are often blessings in the temple before or after the service.

I was fifteen years old when I first saw a wedding ceremony in Mexico. All the people in the church were happy and animated. Everybody was sitting and waiting for the bride to arrive. The groom looked nervous and excited. Finally the bride arrived to the church, everybody was clapping and smiling to her; it was so beautiful to see that two persons were about to join their lives forever. However, nobody could imagine all the effort that the couple did to make the ceremony wedding happen. When a couple wants to marry, the first step to do is to ask for the bride. In Mexico, the tradition is that the groom and his parents visit the family’s bride. Usually the meeting is to have permission of her parents and to start planning

Marriage is a ritual that marks a change in status for a man and a woman and the acceptance by society of the new family that is formed (Rosman & Rubel, 1981). Marriage, like other customs, is governed by rules (Rosman & Rubel, 1981). Anthropology has represented marriage as the definitive ritual and universally translatable regulative ideal of human societies (BORNEMAN, 1996). Marriage also the act of joining two persons of opposite sex together to become as husband and wife. Many people in the society have different opinions or outright misconception of the meaning of marriage. While some people see it as a union between a man and woman, others take it to mean an agreement made between a man

If they were to meet each other without the parent’s permission, it is considered as bad manner and bad upbringing. In India, the average age to marry is 24 years old for the males and 22 to 23 years old for the females. Indian weddings are usually the longest wedding, which are held in the night time in a huge wedding hall, that includes many different rituals which are performed in front of the God and the couple promise’s each other that they will be together in a sad or a happy moment, no matter what will be the results. Even though wedding has the same meaning in every culture, the way of celebration and ceremony is different. According to iloveindia.com, the ceremony in India is about the priest, groom, bride, and bride’s parents sit beneath a mandap, and a canopy. The wedding ceremony starts off with the Kanya Daan, in which the bride’s parents give away the bride’s hand to the groom with all her responsibility. Then the couple holds hands together and start circling around a small, enclosed fire in a ritual called the mangal phera for seven times by taking a seven oaths together to spend a rest of the life to live as a one soul. The seven steps around the enclosed fire, is the vow to support each other and live happily together. Finally, the groom will apply a red powder to the center of the bride’s forehead and tie a black beaded necklace around her neck, symbolizing

Arranged marriages are set up by friends and family, and sometimes by a matchmaker that sets up the marriage. But the bride’s father has the most responsibility in arranging marriage for his daughter, and is the one who approaches the father of a potential bridegroom. Important aspects when considering a possible match are financial status, caste, and the bride and bridegrooms horoscopes matching. The role of astrology is important, and if a Hindu priest finds that the horoscopes of the potential spouses do not match, they will not marry, and must begin the search all over again (Livermore, 2009). India’s view of marriage first and then love is very different from the Western view where love comes before marriage, seems to be successful. The

Cultural and socioeconomic factors that reinforce child marriage differ from region to region. Where one lives within a country may strongly influence whether or not she will marry early. In India the highest rates of child marriage is concentrated in five states: Madhya Pradesh at 73%, Andhra Pradesh at 71%, Rajasthan at 68%, Bihar at 67 % and Uttar Pradesh at 64%. The median age of marriage in India is 16.4 years according to the National Family Health Survey. [8]It also found that 65% of girls are married by the time they are 18. There are many reasons why child marriage occurs but they can be put into two general categories. The first one is based on social norms, customs and religion. Virginity in India is very important. If one is raped, it is hard for her to be married. “As Vatsayyana said a couple millennia ago that a virgin bride is important, even if people don’t talk about it openly”.[1] Therefore, the younger the bride the more likely it is that she’ll be a virgin and so marrying off the daughter as young as possible, the faster the end of the parent’s responsibility to keep her a virgin.