When the freedom to marry in a church returned to society it needed to be reintegrated in some way. If people choose to have a wedding in a church now, it is often part of a regular Sunday service. Documents would be done at the registry office earlier, before the wedding.
Two people, Vadim and Maria, from our church married on Sunday. They did not have all their necessary documents prepared in time. Maria is from Austria so they have decided to do their official documents in Austria when they arrive there for their honeymoon. On Sunday they had a church wedding. I actually respected they fact that they considered it important and valuable to make their covenant before God and man, even though they will have to get their documents sorted out later. (They would have to wait a further 3 months to do the documents in Russia.) It made me wonder how much we value the concept of vows as part of the marriage process.
After our regular Sunday service, we had a 15 minute break and then a short ceremony. This was followed by a reception.
Vadim and Maria, a very happy couple after their nuptuals. It was really fun to watch such a happy couple get married.
A Russian wedding reception has many games for the bride and groom and for the guests. Here, Vadim and Maria are trying to feed each other yoghurt. The rather funny thing about this game was that as Maria tried to feed Vadim his yoghurt, he just sat there and fed himself also. We were in hysterics.
2 comments:
when you think about it the whole concept of a vow is being lost in our culture. The idea that I would commit to any action no matter what. We instead make contracts that can be reviewed,broken or added to as the future unfolds. They can be remade to stay in my best interests or at least comfortable to me.
Imagine a vow of fidelity in any political realm? You would be considered a fool think business-even insurance!
Marriage is the last hold out. Those of us who know the value of the vows of marriage dont understand that everyone doesnt think the same thing as we do when we talk of marriage. The vow (something that says come what may I will be true to my word) is what gives the necessary security for married people to flurish. But those who think marriage is merely another contract have no way to understand what you mean. Its like trying to explain colour to a person who has always been blind.
This was somewhat the same in China. I attended the wedding of my translator and her husband. They had already done the registry thing so what we attended was more like a reception. Apparently it is less like the communist weddings of old where the couple would be lucky to even be together after the signing of papers (and that only if the government sanctioned it). The function we attended was quite pleasant and had some interesting traditions like the married couple going to each table and offering cigarettes which the bride would then light for the receipient. The food was sooooo good and there was soooooo much of it. It was ten courses and each course would have been a full meal in Canada.
It is cool to see that you are able to partake in so many cultural things that others would so easily miss.
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