A Wedding in the US
Topic: Ritual
Sources:
“American Wedding Traditions and
Customs”, http://www.elitedresses.com/American_Wedding_Customs_s/63.htm
“United States Wedding Traditions”
“Something borrowed, Something new”
Description:
Often women in the United States are brought up since they were
young girls to believe in their someday fairy-tale ‘white-wedding’. And now
with the growing popularity of reality television, there are even wedding
competitions; to see who can get the ‘prettiest dress’, the ‘fanciest
ceremony’, etc. I myself have two younger sisters, and we have talked about
what we’d like to do for our weddings since we were very young. “Who the
bridesmaids will be; where we’d get married; and of course who our dream man
would be.” I even remember one of my sisters getting so excited she drew me a
picture of what she wanted her ‘someday’ wedding dress to look like, and at the
time she was eleven. I know from friends, family and the media, that we were
not the only three girls who have gotten excited by this fairy-tale like
ceremony.
Discussion/Analysis:
In the US, I feel that part of this fairy-tale like feel,
comes from the fact that our marriages are not arranged. We choose our partners
based on ‘love’. A tradition that is not as common any more, but is sometimes
still practiced is when the soon-to-be groom asks the father of the bride for
his permission to be wed to his daughter. The common wedding traditions in the
United States are taken from a wide range of other cultures, but mostly they
are from European cultures.
The White Dress is the most picturesque image we often think
of when we think of the American wedding. Traditionally, the meaning of the
white dress was to symbolize purity, but during the Victorian era, when the
white dress originated, the white dress was a symbol of status and only to be
worn once. Recently, I saw a new show on television called “Something borrowed,
something new”, where the women either choose a refurbished version of their
mother’s wedding dress or a new one. I’ve even seen a show where they present
the challenges of finding a wedding dress with a budget of $2,000-3,000. The
wedding industry has become huge, and the pressures for the ‘perfect’ wedding
have seemed to grow from the traditional celebration of the love between two
people to an elaborate and expensive ceremony of this love.
The rings are also another very important part of the
ceremony, symbolizing eternity and never ending love. Often the rings are made
with gold or silver, and encrusted with various types of jewels. At the end of the ceremony, the bride and
groom kiss to seal the vows, and then they walk together down the aisle. During
this time rice has been traditionally thrown to wish fertility, happiness and
prosperity to the newlywed couple. Yet in some newer traditions birdseed is
thrown, or bubbles are blown.
American weddings can be very elaborate, and have definitely
become a prospering business, and are a large part of our culture, but even
still I feel that in the end they are just ceremonies to celebrate the love
between two people, and the hopes of a happy future.
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