Wedding Essay

Weddings in our modern culture signify a celebration bringing two lovers together, legally and religiously binding them until death do them part. Steeped deep in tradition, weddings usually follow some strict guidelines, and although they differ vastly throughout cultures, there are some basic elements that these different cultures have in common. Society rarely questions where the traditions come from or how weddings evolved to become what they are today. In this paper, weddings will be analyzed from the first record of a marriage all the way to 2014.

Weddings are romantic, happy, and full of love. But only rarely in history has love been the reason for getting married. As a matter of fact, true love was actually thought to be incompatible with marriage. The oldest known fact about weddings dates back all the way to the Sumerians. Over 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians had rules that structured marriage. For example, The "Best Man" got that name because he would help kidnap the bride, and then fight off the relatives if they tried to rescue her. Now, we are a little more civilized in getting the consent of the bride before the marriage, but the term “best man” is used still to this day (Kruszelnicki, 2000). However, the oldest marriage actually recorded as a certificate was found 2,500 years ago in a bundle of Aramaic. It was more of a contract, and it held that the groom would receive a 14 year-old bride in exchange for six cows (Kruszelnicki, 2000). Weddings were not held for love, but for political and economic reasons.

From 30 to 325 CE, marriage was thought of as a private matter, with no ceremony being required and no strict rules (McSheffrey, 2006). However, this quickly began to change. In 860 C.E, Pope Nicho...

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... their roles in marriage. But as the women's-rights movement picked up in the 20th century, wives slowly began to insist on being treated as their husbands' equals and not their property. Marriage now became a personal contract between two individuals seeking love, stability, and happiness. This transformation opened the door to Gays and Lesbians fighting for marriage (Staff, 2012).

Currently, there is a huge transformation in marriage as we know it. States are becoming more liberal, slowly allowing people to choose to marry as they please. The guidelines for marriage are becoming more and more fluid; there are people participating in open marriages, or not getting married at all. Society’s idea of marriage and love is changing rapidly, and who knows where marriage will be decades and centuries from now. Marriage is an Idea in Society that changes with it.