Weddings

I found the “Princess Palace” reading particularly fascinating. It seems to be a huge mix of Western and ‘traditional’ Japanesenessishness. The Disney-like architecture, the complete organisation of the entire event, the importance of costumes and the photographs (and the bride having to “endure” standing around being posed for quite some time) – and even the wax cake being cut – create what one might consider to be a very artificial ceremony, which might almost seem innappropriate to a lot of the Western world, even though in many senses it is based on what the Western world seems to value. And that is, of course, considering it from a Western perspective. It’s very commercial and appears to be quite superficial. I’d like to know what the actual feelings (or at least, the feelings communicated) by people involved in the ceremony were in more detail, particularly those of the bride.

Both articles seemed to focus in particular on aspects surrounding the bride; the bride seems to almost be more important than groom. In both cases, a feast or meal of some kind was important. Again in the “Princess Palace” article, I found the observation that people might recognise a cake as symbolic but not know what it was symbolic of to be interesting. I imagine that the wedding cake becomes a symbol of marriage itself, as well as of a sense of tradition. This sense of tradition, as we’ve seen from Hobsbwam, is very important in legitimising ritual.

Marriage serves many purposes, from linking families together (which can even take a more national political meaning, in such cases as royal weddings – just consider the marriages of Royalty back in the day in Britain) which can end feuds/arguments/wars or simply add to power and social networks, to legitimising children so that they can not only be recognised by society but also have someone to care for them. Displays of wealth are also vital, and linked in with power. Marriage with a main cause of love and romance is a very recent idea, and a particularly Western one. It seems that as society has become more focused on the individual than the group, romantic love has become a higher ideal, which seems a little ironic in some senses but actually computes rather well. Romantic love is a focus on the individual’s feelings and can and often does, as we see in the great tradition of comedy/romantic-comedy, subvert the social norms and often creates at the ending a new kind of society in which the couple is acceptable. Even if they both have to commit suicide in order to achieve this.

Weddings in New Zealand are very interesting as well. Already, a lot of my friends and people around my age that I know are getting engaged or married, which seems to be a slight shift from the last generation’s trend. My friends got married at 18 and had a relatively small wedding with family and friends – who was on the guest list was important, as leaving someone out could offend them. Although they are Christian, they married on a beach rather than in a church, which to me suggests the apparent changing attitudes towards the values in Christianity. Their wedding was very well planned in advance, just as I recieved an invitation to another friend’s wedding almost a year in advance.

This is in great contrast to my parents wedding (which I was not present at). My father rang up his sisters and asked if they were doing anything that weekend, because he was getting married. For them – and I’m not making any comments about my friends at all – the marriage was just a legal recognition of their love and union, and they had barely any guests at all. But now this post is getting offensively long and tedious. I shall eat an apple instead.