Indan arrange marriage

    

                 Indian arrange marriage

As you can see, the dowry system was something originally honorable in intention and provided for the independent wealth of the bride in a time when she was unlikely to work outside of the home. Like many customs and traditions, time can alter their original meaning and purpose. While the dowry system is still in place, it has become more of a "bride-price" system. The parents of a baby girl must come up with a respectable dowry (the term respectable is arbitrary, respectable dowry can be anything from $50 worth of material goods to $50,000 or more worth of material goods depending on the family's standing in society). If a good dowry is not made, the girl is unlikely to have a "good" match. This again, is mostly arbitrary. A good match for a very poor family might be marriage of their daughter into a slightly better financed family or a good match for a middle income family might be finding a husband that is a doctor or engineer. As you have probably guessed, there are very few brides who actually retain their dowry after marriage. In the most honorable of families the bride is allowed to keep certain items for her own use such as the bed and cooking pots she is suppose to bring with her and some of the jewelry. She is also allowed control over how the rest of the dowry is kept, spent etc. This situation is a very modern one and in place in very educated households.

The most common form of use of the dowry is not meant to be dishonorable and is far more practical for many families. More often than not, the bride's dowry gets absorbed into the household for the greater good of the entire family. Perhaps a bride's dowry may help provide food for the entire family over a lifetime, or allow the purchase of a refrigerator. For many families, they do not see anything wrong in this sort of dowry absorption simply because it aids the bride as well. Furthermore, if the groom's family is better due to the dowry, the bride will enjoy a better life than perhaps her own mother did.

Indian arrange marriage

               Indian arrange marriage

Potential bride-grooms come under close scrutiny for several areas of the matching process. Do they have enough means to support the bride? Do they appear to be men who will make good husbands and fathers? Often, the bride will live with her in-laws after marriage in what is called a joint family. Because of this, the groom's family is also brought under close scrutiny. Do the women of the household seem well cared for? Do they have a big enough house for another person and grandchildren? Does the family have a good reputation?

Potential brides also come under scrutiny by the boy's parents. Since it is a commonly held belief that brides are the embodiment of that family's honor and pride, the girl must be from good family and have good manners. She should be respectable and have no taint on her name. Does she have the makings of a good wife and mother? Does she want to work after marriage or stay at home? There are so many factors to weigh, that I can not list them all.

Often, this turns into an interview process where photos are provided of the boy/girl in question along with bio-data about his/her life and family. If that meets with approval, arrangements will be made for the parents to meet the boy/girl and their family. Traditionally, however, the bride and groom would not even see each other until the day of their wedding. Today, while most marriages are still arranged, times are changing. There is usually a small courtship period where the bride and groom can meet and talk under the careful watch of a guardian. Also, if either one of the two do not want the marriage, it is likely to be cancelled. Very few family's today "force" marriages upon their children.

Of course, with any society, you have those people who just will not adapt and change. There are places in India where time has not moved forward. For those people, they carry on their lives as their parents have and their grandparents before them. Shockingly, there are still some forced marriages and child brides.

Which brings me to the issue of the dowry system....yes, folks it still exists. Now before you make that grimace of distaste, let me tell you a little about it. The dowry system has been in place since before the written record and it has been used by parents in every country imaginable, including America in older times. The point of the dowry system was to provide for the bride should something unfortunate occur with her husband such as death or divorce. As you can probably imagine, daughters can be extremely expensive offspring. Parents had/have to make a mad scramble to get enough wealth and material goods together to see their daughter well taken care of by the time she is of marriageable age. In Northern India, today this age can vary from 18-25 though exceptions do apply depending on socio-economic factors

Indian arrange marriage

Arranged Marriages and Dowry

• We are all familiar with the story : boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl gets married. For the majority of the western world, this is our ideal of a great beginning to a perfect marriage. It is important to realize that while India is very modernized in some aspects (i.e.. they lead the world in student's math and science scores and produce the largest amount of engineers in the world) they still keep to the tradition of arranged marriages. Marriages formed out of love AKA "love marriages" do happen in India but it is not the norm. It is an accepted fact that a person's family will play a role in picking the marriage partner.
• While to many people raised in the west, this might sound odd. It is important to remember that in Indian society an arranged marriage is seen as an act of love. Since marriage is one of the most important decisions a person will ever make and because divorce is not accepted among most Indians, it is imperative that the marriage choice is carefully thought out and planned. How can a young person make such an important decision on his/her own? Instead, the family (usually the parents) look for certain traits in a marriage partner. Some desirable traits looked for in both male and female are: matching levels of education, matching cultures, close parental cities, matching religions, and matching vegetarians/non-vegetarians just to name a few.

Marriage

Marriage is the tradition of all the casts and culture to join the men and woman in the step of love for their life.The way of marriage is different in different casts and culture but the aim of marriage is to accept men and woman as a husband and wife for their life in the traditionl way.Marriage makes a important role in men and woman life.The men and woman life starts after marriage.Because before marriage they were alone.They live for themselves.But after marriage they know how to live for others.So marriage is the important thing of human life.                                                                                         

Marriage are of two types(1)Love marriage (2)Arrange marriage.                                                                                 (1)Love marriage-In love marriage men and woman meet one another,like one another before marriage.In love marriage men and woman meet one another,talk with one another,know one another spend a lot of time with one another so they know their friends like and what they dislike.They also know which thing their friends like,which colour they like,which food they like,which place they like,which music they like etc.So they can live their marriage life happily also after marriage.     (2)Arrange marriage-In this marriage men and woman are choosen from our family friends or relatives.In this marriage the case is also seen that men and woman never seen one another in their life before and have to accept the new life partner for their life.This is a traditional marriage.In this marriage men and woman know one another and love one another after marriage.Although it takes a time to know one another feeling but this marriage is accepted by everyone.In this marriage love begains after marriage.Arrange marriage is accepted by everyone in our country(Nepal)                          Even love marriage or arrange marriage two are same.But we have to know that marriage is the process of joining  two hearts or joining men and woman in one body.

Christian views on marriage

Christian views on marriage

Orthodox betrothal depicted by Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev, 1862.

Christian views on marriage typically regard it as instituted and ordained by God for the lifelong relationship between one man as husband and one woman as wife, and is to be "held in honor among all...."^[Heb 13:4]

Civil laws recognize marriage as having social and political status. Christian theology affirms the secular status of marriage, but additionally views it from a moral and religious perspective that transcends all social interests.

While marriage is honored among Christians and throughout the Bible, it is not seen as necessary for everyone. Single people who either have chosen to remain unmarried or who have lost their spouse for some reason are neither incomplete in Christ nor personal failures. There is no suggestion that Jesus was ever married.

Divorce or dissolution of marriage is generally seen from a Christian perspective as less than the ideal, with specific opinions ranging from it being universally wrong to the notion that it sometimes is inevitable.

The New Testament holds that sex is reserved for marriage.^[1] It says that sex outside of marriage is the sin of adultery (for the married person) if either sexual participant is married to another person. Voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other is considered the sin of fornication.

Nepali Traditional marriage

Traditional Wedding

Wedding customs in Nepal vary according to ethnic groups and castes. Especially country like Nepal, have different kinds of wedding ceremonies because we have varieties of cast and creeds. Weddings in the metropolitans have parades or car for the wedding processions; full fledged band instruments such as trumpets and trombones, ferry lights all over the house which is naturally more expenses. These weddings are completely different from the traditional remote village weddings. They are very simple for very rich in culture.

Wedding in Nepal is a multi day event, which may engross an entire village. In its essence, it reveals the very strong social and communal values of the Nepali people. Few things in Nepali culture take precedence over a wedding and most people treat the time as the opportunity of a lifetime and a time to hold back and celebrate with varieties of foods, fun and dancing.
 Weddings generally take place in tender age in Nepal. It is normal for boys and girls to be married during their teens but in few cases in very young ages. The wedding procedure usually begins with an arrangement of a boy and a girl with comparable backgrounds; often with the help of a priest who are well know as matchmaker. The meeting takes place between the parents of the two families. In an arranged marriage, it is the parents who choose their children's partners. One additional note concerning the arranged marriage: even though the parents choose the individuals, the children are commonly given a voice to accept or decline the match. There are instances, however, of a couple not seeing each other for the first time until the ceremony begins. In a love marriage, it is the boy and the girl who choose their mate. Today, both types can be found throughout the country but it is the arranged marriage that predominates.

However, the love marriage method has been gaining much acceptance over the years perhaps due to the influence of western culture and more over with the drastic develop in media. Eloping may occur between couples that are not thought to be a suitable match in case of different castes & tribes.

Castes are in many ways an extended family. And there are cultural rules that dictate that one must marry into the same caste, but not the same family. There are many small villages today that are predominantly one family. Therefore it is common that a one must look to neighboring villages to marry. This explains why most village marriages are a marriage between one person from one village and the other from another village sometimes days apart. It also explains why marriages last many days

MARRIAGE THROUGH THE AGES

In Christian Marriage, husband and wife are one. As we can see from what God said: "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."(Genesis 2:24) Christians are ordained to marry Christians only as both are thought to be parts of the body of Christ. The idea is how could one Christian unite with a non-Christian in the Christ. That's why the idea of marrying a Christian only. An ideal Christian marriage has the "Christ as the head, the husband, of each partner in the marriage individually; both man and woman, as part of the church, are the bride of Christ". The union of husband and wife begins with the unity of the two in Christ. As the Genesis says, "The two shall become one flesh". It implies more than the oneness of bodies, it indicates oneness of souls.

A Christian wedding usually takes place in a Church, before a priest. A Christian bride traditionally wears a white gown. Her head is covered with a white veil and a bunch of white flowers crown her. Both the groom and the bride accept each other in front of the priest.