History of Weddings

Hi all,

I'm going to a Pagan wedding in DSM this weekend, and it's got me wondering about the history of weddings. I'm thinking western-style weddings were heavily influenced or controlled by the church during the middle ages, creating the traditions we are used to.

However, there's got to be a lot more history here, and the internet...well its actually being hard to find anything concrete. At least, Wiki doesn't have history on their "wedding" entry. Christianity is so young as a religion that there must be some more...

I halfway think that if someone says "pagan wedding" they're really just refering to using any traditions that exist outside the typical wester-church wedding.

Thoughts?

How was the pagan wedding, Jonathan?

Stereotypically, I always think of pagan weddings as outdoors.

When Andrew and I got married, we looked all over for inspiration - the first place we started was pagan ceremonies because I personally think of a pagan ceremony is a non-christian ceremony. I wouldn't necessarily call them secular, but I agree - its definitely not a church wedding.

It was under an old oak tree on a farm that had been converted to a park...handfasting ceremony, all over pretty quick. Lots of costumes, which was the cool part!

Here's some interesting reading Jonathan. Note this edition was published in 1921. I downloaded this from Google Books. Some of the social norms have not really evolved further in the nearly 100 years that this book was written. Enjoy! Katie

The History of Human Marriage: By Edward Westermarck, LL.D., Professor of Sociology in the University of London. (Macmillan & Co., London. 1921.

Book Overview
Volume 1 of 3. This work discusses the evolution of marriage from its earliest history through present times. This volume contains chapters relative to the following topics: on the method of investigation; origin of marriage; human pairing season in primitive times; criticism of the hypothesis of promiscuity: alleged instances of peoples living in promiscuity, prenuptial unchastity, Jus Primae Noctis, religious prostitution, lending and exchange of wives, feasts, classificatory system of relationship, mother right, masculine jealousy; frequency of marriage and the marriage age; celibacy; sexual modesty; courtship; secondary sexual characters in animals, female coyness; and primitive means of attraction.