Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops. In earlier times and in most cultures the consent of the partners has not had the importance now attached to it, at least in Western societies and those they have influenced.
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Background
The authority required for the marriage to be legal comes either from the national law of the country or from a religious body. Vows can also be written by the couple, or poetry, lyrics or vows from a mixture of religious traditions used. However couples marrying in a house of worship or within a religious tradition are often constrained to use the standard vows of that tradition's ceremony. Until recent times the only legal form of marriage in monogamous societies was between a man and a woman (the legal age for marriage is usually lower however than the beginning of adulthood): unions between partners of the same sex are now legal in some jurisdictions, though not universally accepted as marriages since the element of procreation is absent, though adoption of children may be legal for such couples).
- England
The law in England authorises marriages to be legal if properly carried out and registered in the Church of England and some other religious bodies (e.g. Jews, Quakers): other men and women who wish to marry can be married by a local official authorised to do so (civil ceremony). Circumstances may result in the same partners having both ceremonies at different times though this is rare. The vows, presence of witnesses and civil registration are absolute requirements under the law.
Civil ceremonies often allow couples to choose their own marriage vows, although many civil marriage vows are adapted from the traditional vows, taken from the Book of Common Prayer, "To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part."[1]
They were first published in English in the prayer book of 1549, based on earlier Latin texts (the Sarum and York Rituals of the medieval period). An older version of the final phrase is "and to obey, until death us do depart" where "depart" means "separate". "Until death us do depart" had to be changed due to changes in the usage of "depart" in the Prayer Book of 1662. In the 1928 prayer book (not authorised) and in editions of the 1662 prayer book printed thereafter "and to obey" was retained (in the 1928 book an alternative version omitted this).
References
- ^ [1]: Solemnization of Matrimony, Book of Common Prayer
Further reading
- Daniel, Evan (1948) The Prayer-Book; its history, language and contents; 26th ed. Redhill: Wells Gardner; pp. 491-96: The form of solemnization of matrimony
External links
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