LOVE AND MARRIAGE
Marriage should be a celebration that every woman, man and family looks forward to. Some couples expect too much from a marriage. I know one young prospective bride who complained to her beau that his proposal wasn’t very romantic. His reply was, “Hey, you want marriage or romance?”
Even though 50% of marriages in the U.S end in divorce it’s still the dream of every young girl to get married, have children – not necessarily in that order – and live happily ever after. There are as many reasons for people getting married as there are people. Love, companionship, financial considerations, spur of the moment decisions, running away from an unhappy situations, etc., but no one ever gets married expecting the marriage to fail. The Geezer knows from where he speaks – my marriage was the happiest 18-minutes of my life.
Occasionally one hears about an unusual set of circumstances that leads to tying the knot. Of course, different cultures have different rules and standards where marriage is concerned. In the ancient Druid religion young couples were urged to get married if they both could sing, “Our Love is Here to Stay” without drooling. The Visigoths insisted that the bride and groom had to be able to spell,
“vamoose” backwards. The Viking’s would not sanction a marriage until each party admitted to being a “nincompoop” and a worshiper of the Viking God, Kirk Douglas.
A young 7-year old girl living in New Delhi was forced to wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the “evil eye” on her and her family. Young Shivam wasn’t even allowed to pick her groom from the pack of strays – her father and mother choose her betroth for her. It isn’t even mentioned whether she was attracted to the flea ridden mutt – arranged marriages are often like that. Just ask Madonna’s second husband.
The reason for the emergency nuptials was that her upper teeth appeared before her lower teeth – considered a bad omen by members of the Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs. That seems a pretty drastic reason to get hitched – what if she was born toothless and remained like that her whole life. A female Gabby Hayes, if you will.
Her father said his daughter married the dog only to “remove the evil eye,” a superstitious belief that some misfortune could befall her and the family. I guess he doesn’t consider his daughter married to a filthy canine a misfortune. What dowry did she bring to the marriage, a bag of kibble? Can you imagine their honeymoon? They probably chased a rubber ball all night and scratched their ears with their hind legs. Wonder if there was a pre-nup? Perhaps the groom got possession of their dog chews.
Family and friends participated in three days of traditional ceremonies and festivals that are part of a Santhal tribal marriage. They swore their vows to the local dog catcher whose name was Sabu. Everyone in the tribe insists that 7-year old would be free to marry a man later. Yeah, right, what man would propose to a girl who hadn’t had her distemper shots and wasn’t recently wormed? I guess love and marriage takes different forms all over the globe. I just wish the happy couple a nice first litter.
Even though 50% of marriages in the U.S end in divorce it’s still the dream of every young girl to get married, have children – not necessarily in that order – and live happily ever after. There are as many reasons for people getting married as there are people. Love, companionship, financial considerations, spur of the moment decisions, running away from an unhappy situations, etc., but no one ever gets married expecting the marriage to fail. The Geezer knows from where he speaks – my marriage was the happiest 18-minutes of my life.
Occasionally one hears about an unusual set of circumstances that leads to tying the knot. Of course, different cultures have different rules and standards where marriage is concerned. In the ancient Druid religion young couples were urged to get married if they both could sing, “Our Love is Here to Stay” without drooling. The Visigoths insisted that the bride and groom had to be able to spell,
“vamoose” backwards. The Viking’s would not sanction a marriage until each party admitted to being a “nincompoop” and a worshiper of the Viking God, Kirk Douglas.
A young 7-year old girl living in New Delhi was forced to wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the “evil eye” on her and her family. Young Shivam wasn’t even allowed to pick her groom from the pack of strays – her father and mother choose her betroth for her. It isn’t even mentioned whether she was attracted to the flea ridden mutt – arranged marriages are often like that. Just ask Madonna’s second husband.
The reason for the emergency nuptials was that her upper teeth appeared before her lower teeth – considered a bad omen by members of the Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs. That seems a pretty drastic reason to get hitched – what if she was born toothless and remained like that her whole life. A female Gabby Hayes, if you will.
Her father said his daughter married the dog only to “remove the evil eye,” a superstitious belief that some misfortune could befall her and the family. I guess he doesn’t consider his daughter married to a filthy canine a misfortune. What dowry did she bring to the marriage, a bag of kibble? Can you imagine their honeymoon? They probably chased a rubber ball all night and scratched their ears with their hind legs. Wonder if there was a pre-nup? Perhaps the groom got possession of their dog chews.
Family and friends participated in three days of traditional ceremonies and festivals that are part of a Santhal tribal marriage. They swore their vows to the local dog catcher whose name was Sabu. Everyone in the tribe insists that 7-year old would be free to marry a man later. Yeah, right, what man would propose to a girl who hadn’t had her distemper shots and wasn’t recently wormed? I guess love and marriage takes different forms all over the globe. I just wish the happy couple a nice first litter.
posted by THE RANTING OLD GEEZER at 5:53 PM
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