Some Interesting Facts About Marriage

The first of our interesting facts about marriage concerns where marriage first became a legal institution. This was in Rome. Men could marry when they were 14 years old and women when they were 12 years old.

In fact, the whole marriage custom originated in ancient Rome. Another interesting fact from this time is that they thought that a vein on the ring finger went straight to the heart. This belief remained for centuries.

White dresses for brides appeared in 1840. Until then, they married in any color. In fact, it was Queen Victoria who started this tradition. She was also the first to use the wedding march.

Here are some more interesting facts about marriage.

The history of marriage

One of the most interesting facts about marriage is that in the main part of the story it was not related to love. In fact, from Roman times, it was an exclusively civilian institution for hereditary reasons. In other words, people get married just to make sure they have financial stability.

This happened not only among the families of the aristocracy, but at all levels of society. Marriage was an event between the bride’s father and the groom. They considered economic and social benefits, not sentimental. Divorce was unacceptable in most countries until well into the 20th century.

When the idea of ​​romantic love emerged, the common places to find partners were ball (for the affluent) and markets (for the lower classes). In fact, everyone knew that was where you were going to find a partner. Another option was at worship services.

A woman who flirted or showed interest in a man used to be looked at strangely. Women were meant to pretend to be uninterested in proving that they were respectable virgins. However, this did not prevent an entire love language from being developed using fans, handkerchiefs and umbrellas. Each gesture with one of these objects came to mean something between the stakeholders.

Facts about marriage: Traditions

Many of the interesting facts about marriage relate to the traditions that come with the wedding itself. All over the world, there are specific ways to express the desire for the couple to be happy and make love a celebration. Let’s look at some of these marriage traditions:

• In Fiji, the man asks for the bride’s hand in an unusual way. He has to give his father a whale tooth. This is proof of both his bravery and true love.
• In a bachelorette party, Germany, before the ceremony, the couple’s friends and family gather to smash porcelain crockery. This is meant to bring the couple happiness.
• In South Korea, it is common for the groom’s friends to hit his feet with a dried fish during the wedding party. This is meant to be a test of the new man’s character strength.
• In Russia, they kidnap the bride. The guests hold her and ask the groom for ransom to give her back. Sometimes it’s just symbolic and others not. Regardless, when the groom pays the sum of ransom, they release his bride.
• Blackening of the bride and groom. This is a Scottish tradition that takes place the day before the wedding. The couple’s friends smear the bride and groom with mud and parade them through the streets. It is a way to let the couple know that they want to be happy, but that they also want some tough times ahead.

• Swedish kisses. This is one of the finest of the interesting facts. In Sweden, if the bride gets up from the table and leaves the room, all the girls can kiss the groom on the cheek. Similarly, if the groom leaves the room, the boys can kiss the bride.

Last note on marriage

The last interesting fact is that the marriage institution was relatively stable until the 1960s. However, the invention of contraception and the establishment of divorce in the United States caused separations to increase by 100 percent between 1966 and 1969. This pattern was later repeated in many countries around the world.