Marriage in Ancient Roman Culture

The Jewish community has been practicing wedding ceremonies for many years where the preparations and procedures are very tedious, which takes months in order to prepare for this sacred event. When preparing for these ceremonies, it is important to understand that even though there are various types of ceremonies within the Jewish community, they all however, originated from a centralized resource and that is the Bible. Even though the Bible does not mention about wedding ceremonies, it is the iconic events that occur within the Bible that is used as the origins of wedding ceremonies for the Jewish community. In order to establish a correlation between the origins of Jewish marriages to the modern practices of Jewish wedding ceremonies, we must take a look at what a wedding ceremony consist of for the Jewish people.

Marriage has been portrayed as many things throughout the years. In the short stories, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell both portray marriage, and how it does not always bring happiness. Each story was written by a married woman in the 1800s, this could reveal and interrupt how the lives of a married woman were in their time period. In each story, the main character is woman being overpowered by her husband, then when they find out they could be ‘free’ a sudden sigh of relief comes to mind. Only to be either be mislead or to feel trapped again. The authors Kate Chopin and Susan

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

Last, and most important, is that studies have not shown that more hours spent on homework leads to more knowledge. Time spent on homework does not correlate to better test scores. Some students can spend twice as much time as others and still not do as well. Grades do not necessarily improve with more hours of homework.

During modern weddings, the bride walks down the aisle with a bouquet in her hands similarly it was seen in the Elizabethan era. “Fresh flowers were central to the clothing. The bride would wear flowers in her hair and they would also adorn her gown,” (Alchin, Linda. “Elizabethan Wedding Customs.¨) On the wealthier side of society they would wear fancy clothing that had silver threading and jewelry on it. The color yellows meaning has gone through change during the course of time, today if someone were to wear yellow to a wedding it would not be looked down upon or make anyone upset. But during the Elizabethan Era the color yellow was a sign of mourning and was not to be worn at weddings, (Alchin, Linda. “Elizabethan Wedding Customs.¨) In modern days, most brides wear the traditional white dress during their wedding, but this tradition was not around during the Elizabethan era. “Instead she would wear her best gown and kirtle, or even a new gown if money was available,” (Alchin, Linda. “Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings.”) A few clothing traditions have stood throughout time and are still used in modern

The Roman way of life is different and similar to modern day. Though one may not know much over the Roman’s the culture is fascinating and still remembered in history. The clothes, food, customs, and leisure are major in Roman lifestyle.

The Roman family life was a very simple and complex system at the same time. Every aspect of life for the typical Roman family was male dominated, they were in on every decision. The everyday family life was based on social status and diplomatic classifications. Everything from jobs to entertainment that could be participated in was based on gender or social standing within the community. The Romans were very absorbed with different types of entertainment and recreation. Everything about the Roman life revolved around the family, it was the basic unit of their daily lives.

Elizabethan era marriages differ from the marriages carried out today. In the Elizabethan era most of the marriages were arranged by the spouse’s parents, but in this new era you start finding love by meeting a person you find attractive, then you start dating, next you get engaged, and finally you get married! We usually know that in the Elizabethan era it was very ridiculous to marry someone because of love even if love may occur sometimes in marriage. The only reason why the parents organized the marriages was because the two sides of the groom and bride families received benefits from one another. According to the Elizabethan England life website it says that the marriages were arranged for wealth and reputation. In other words, the parents just wanted power, money, and royalty.

Arranged marriage in the Renaissance era was very popular among Florentine families. This was the way of life for multiple different reasons. Arranged marriages were the way things were run in order to bring two families together. The two families hopes were to gain an alliance and more importantly gain wealth. Another objective was producing offspring more specifically boys that could eventually inherit the family wealth and power.

Allison Glazebrook and Kelly Olson’s chapter, “Greek and Roman Marriage" the authors discuss marriage practices in Ancient Greece and Rome and highlight the importance of wives in a family structure and society. They do so by looking at what was required for a legitimate marriage over the course of these civilizations’ history. In both cultures, Glazebrook and Olson especially look at how women and girls’ bodies were policed and defined. From an early age, girls were taught that their role in life would be remain sexually available to their husbands and produce heirs. From a modern perspective, girls in ancient civilizations married extremely young. However, this chapter address the “scientific” justification society gave to promote this practice

The preparations taken for an Elizabethan wedding were set in stone almost, because these steps were crucial in making sure everything was ready for the couple. Before a marriage was arranged or not people had to take into account the age of consent, which was twenty-one (William Shakespeare info). However, with parental permission girls could marry at twelve and boys at fourteen, however this wasn’t extremely common (William Shakespeare info). After a couple was engaged, the next step was the betrothal. A betrothal was where a couple would join hands and the man would give his fiancé a ring to be worn on the right hand. At the wedding the ring would be switched to the left ring finger. After all this, the couple would seal their betrothal with a kiss, and then sign their wedding contract (Maggi Ros). A wedding contract was much like a marriage license that we have today. Sometimes a couple would have to “get married hastily” and would just sign

After that, the engagement ceremony takes place, which is then represented as occurred by the visited female family members washing the hair of the engaged couple in a single basin, after which their hair is said to be interwoven by a process of entwining which signifies their union as being lifelong, they then walk to the edge of the mesa to pray and witness the rising sun(representing of light and new beginnings). After that, both the groom and bride are said to start from his house to the bride’s house, where they remain until the brides wedding garments are completed. The wedding attire of the bride is apparently hand woven by the groom and any men who wish to participate in the village. The wedding garment is said to contain a large belt, two complete white wedding robes, a white wedding robe which contains red stripes at the bottom and also at the top, a white buckskin moccasins and leggings, a specific string to tie her hair and the whole outfit is said to be wrapped in a reed mat. It is interesting to know that the wedding outfit also will serve as a shroud as these garments are necessary after death for the trip through the underworld. After the completion of the wedding outfit and bride's acceptance, the wedding takes place in the traditional Native American Hopi way at the groom's

The Ides of March is a day on the traditional Roman calendar that matches up with the date March 15th on our current calendar. This date is commonly associated with the assassination and death of Julius Caesar in the year 44 B.C. Caesar was warned during mid-February that the next thirty days were to be filled with lots of danger and problems. The haruspex, Spurinna, warned it would all end on the Ides of March. There were said to be many different plots to kill Caesar and for several reasons. One reason was that Caesar was to be named king in mid-march to be able to conquer Parthia.

In the ancient world women had no say to whom they want to marry and there was no such thing as love based relationship among them, it was all about the heiress. According to the article by Joshua J. Mark “ In the language of the Sumerians, the word for `love’ was a compound verb that, in its literal sense, meant `to measure the earth,’ that is, `to mark off land’. Among both the Sumerians and the Babylonians (and very likely among the Assyrians as well) marriage was fundamentally a business arrangement designed to assure and perpetuate an orderly society. Though there was an inevitable emotional component to marriage, its prime intent in the eyes of the state was not companionship but procreation; not personal happiness in the present but communal

The Roman nuclear family, composed of parents and children, shared lives intimately and influenced each other in ways outsiders did not. Livy, in a quote debating the legal status of children between patricians and plebeians, stated “Of course, the children follow the father.” In Roman society, fathers were considered the most powerful. Romans believed in a theoretical concept of a father’s absolute control, but in reality, all family had power and fathers could be challenged.