Tag: marriage

How Wedding Ceremonies Worked Within Europe During the Medieval Period

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Medieval weddings were carried out much the same as they are during the modern day with any witnesses present being provided 3 distinct opportunities to object to the marriage with the most common objections being that the parties involved were too close in relation by blood and/or the age of the bride was too young to accept the concept of marriage and/or bare a child. A ring and a piece of gold or silver was placed upon the Christian Bible held by the priest conducting the ceremony, in an effort to have the ring blessed, after which the priest would take the brides right hand and in Latin say “In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen” which means “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. With truth” in Latin. The priest would touch each finger, starting with the thumb, after saying each part of the Holy Trinity, ending upon the 4th finger when saying “amen”, which became the finger which the wedding ring was placed upon. It was not uncommon for both men and women to wear their wedding rings on their thumbs or middle fingers until the 17th century as any finger was considered acceptable. After undertaking vows, both the husband and wife would lay down to be covered in a shroud, afterwhich they would arise as a newly married couple. This practice was symbolic of a marriage transforming 2 unique individuals into a single person married to Jesus Christ. Finally, the priest would then kiss both the bride and groom upon their face, typically the cheek, and put the couple to bed to ensure consummation of the marriage, at which point, the marriage ceremony was considered complete

The Origin of Valentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day Cards

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Although the exact origin of Valentine’s Day is unknown during the modern day, the Catholic Church recognizes 3 different individuals named “Valentine” or “Valentinus”, all of whom were martyred, however it is possible these individuals were the same person. The Ancient Roman priest Valentinus, who lived during the 3rd century A.D., was imprisoned, perhaps falsely, by Ancient Roman emperor Claudius II (Claudius Gothicus). Claudius II legally prohibited marriage for young men, as he believed unmarried men without families made better soldiers. Valentinus may have performed wedding ceremonies for these soldiers covertly, until caught and executed on February 14, 269 A.D.. During his detention, Valentinus fell in love with the prison keepers daughter, a woman possibly named “Julia”, allegedly curing her of blindness. Valentinus signed the final letter he wrote to this woman prior to execution “Your Valentine”. It should be noted, this origin point is not supported by strong historical and/or physical evidence and may have been propagandized by medieval writers to romanticize Valentinus as a Catholic saint

The 12 Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece

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The Ancient Greeks believed in 12 gods and goddesses who were understood to reside upon Mount Olympus. These deities included Zeus (pronounced “zoose”) the king of the gods, Hera (pronounced “hare-ah”) the wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage and childbirth, Apollo (pronounced “ah-pol-oh”) the son of Zeus, sun god, and god of music and healing, Artemis (pronounced “art-em-is”) the daughter of Zeus, twin sister of Apollo, and the goddess of the moon and hunting, Aphrodite (pronounced “af-row-dye-tee”) the daughter of Zeus and goddess of love and sexual desire, Ares (pronounced “air-eez”) the son of Zeus, god of war and battle, and lover of Aphrodite, Poseidon (pronounced “po-sai-den”) the brother of Zeus and god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes, Demeter (pronounced “de-me-tur”) a lover of Zeus and the goddess of agriculture and fertility, Athena (pronounced “ah-tee-nah”) the daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom and war, Hephaestus (pronounced “heh-fai-sch-tus”) the son of Zeus and god of fire and art, Hermes (pronounced “hur-meez”) the son of Zeus, god of commerce and travel, as well as being a personal messenger for his father, and finally Hestia (pronounced “hess-tee-yah”) the sister of Zeus and goddess of the home and family

The Ancient Mesopotamian Law Code of Hammurabi

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Dating from 1770 B.C., the most complete of ancient Mesopotamian legal texts is the Code of Hammurabi, a compendium of 282 laws which dictated the rules of commercial interactions and set fines and punishments for those found in violation of these laws. Inscribed upon a phallic piece of black obsidian, Hammurabi’s Code is depicted as receiving these laws from Shamash, the god of the sun, justice, and order, with the primary role of protecting the weak from the strong. It is written and recognized within the Hammurabi Code the first appearance of the biblical punishment of an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. Considered by many scientists to be one of the foundational stones of world civilization, the Hammurabi Code is a mixed blessing for women, both protecting women and lowering their social rank as second class citizens. Upon the positive end, the Hammurabi Code recognized women’s basic right to own property, fundamental in its importance as it provided women legal protection in regard to the control of their dowries and inheritance. The Hammurabi Code also forbade arbitrary poor treatment and/or neglect, which meant wives who were ill or barren couldn’t be simply discarded. In divorce, women were permitted to keep their dowries, and in widowhood, women were permitted the opportunity to utilize their husbands estates as their own for the duration of their lives. The Hammurabi Code essentially recognizes Mesopotamian women as distinct persons in a legal sense, rather than property which is how most of the ancient world recognized women. Upon the negative side however, women’s economic and sexual freedoms became severely restricted, forbidden from performing any commercial activity outside of their home and supporting and legalizing the concept of the patriarchy by providing men immense autonomy over the bodies of women, meaning husbands and fathers now owned the sexual reproduction of their wives and daughters which lead to women being executed for adultery, virginity becoming a condition of marriage, and rape not viewed as a violent sexual offense against the female victim, but rather an economic offense against her father as it would cause the father to suffer a severe loss in respect to a daughters bride price as the daughter would be considered a damaged commodity. It’s unclear how these legal mandates and statutes worked at the local level as they are ideals of Mesopotamian culture, but the driving force of these laws and how they are setup and constituted is abundantly clear, allowing male authority and patriarchal notions of male honor, to become sacrosanct

The Illegality of Sexual Relations Outside of Marriage in Utah, United States of America

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In 2019, the state of Utah, United States of America legalized sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Up until this point, sexual relations outside of a husband and wife scenario were illegal, and referred to within the state law as “fornication”

The Reason Marriage Was Created

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Traditionally the concept of marriage was not bore out of love, but more so a way to structure a deal around something required. The upper classes used marriage throughout history to create alliances, sign peace treaties, and create military partnerships, the middle classes used marriage to create business mergers, and the lower classes used marriage to expand upon their familial labor force