Ritual

Marriage Ceremony

Lifecycle Rituals

Origin Every tradition here has a marriage rite, and they disagree about what makes the marriage

Traditions disagree less about the wedding than about what makes the marriage. In Catholic teaching the couple marry each other and the priest is a witness; consent is the thing, and its absence is the ground on which a marriage can later be declared never to have existed. Islamic nikah is a contract with offer, acceptance, witnesses and a dower owed to the bride, and it can be concluded without any ceremony at all. Jewish marriage joins betrothal and marriage into one event under the canopy, completed by a ring given before witnesses and a written contract read aloud. Hindu marriage is completed by the seventh step taken together around the fire, a point Indian courts have had to rule on. Sikh Anand Karaj is four circuits of the scripture while four hymns are sung. Quakers marry in silence with no officiant at all, the meeting itself standing as witness.

Facts

Origins

Origin Period

Every tradition here has a marriage rite, and they disagree about what makes the marriage 2

Origin Period

No single origin 2

Place of Origin

Arose independently in every documented religious culture rather than diffusing from one point of origin, though the exact legal and liturgical form the ceremony takes today owes most to its own tradition's later codification. 2

Historical Origin

The comparative entries of the Encyclopedia of Religion treat the wedding ceremony as one of the most widely attested religious rites across human societies, though the specific vows, witnesses and symbolic acts required to make a marriage religiously valid differ sharply between traditions. 1

Function

Stage of Life Marked

Marriage 3

Attributions

Tradition

A category label spanning the distinct wedding customs of many religious traditions, Hindu Vivaha, Jewish Kiddushin and Nissuin, Christian nuptial rites and Islamic Nikah among them, each governed by its own tradition's own requirements rather than one shared template. 1

Purpose

Religious marriage ceremonies typically combine a formal exchange of consent between the parties with rites specific to the tradition, ranging from the nuptial blessing of a Christian wedding Mass to the signing of the Jewish ketubah and the circling rites of a Hindu Vedic wedding. 1

Practice

Who Performs It

Officiant Led 2

Frequency

Once, or at a turning point in a life 2

Solitary or Communal

Performed by a gathered group 2

Meaning

Literal Meaning

Encyclopedia of Religion treats the marriage ceremony broadly as the rite by which a society formally recognizes the union of two people, a ceremony whose specific words, vows and legal effects vary enormously between religious traditions and civil jurisdictions. 1

Use

Occasion

Marks the formal union of partners before their community, though the specific vows, officiant and accompanying rites vary widely between traditions. 1

Status

Status Today

Living tradition, practised today 3

Current Status

Recognized today in forms ranging from strict traditional rites to civil ceremonies, with individual religious communities continuing to differ on questions such as recognizing same sex marriage. 2

Standing as a Comparative Category

A standard analytic category in the study of religion 1

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Consent, Contract, Covenant

Traditions differ less about how a wedding looks than about what event, exactly, brings the marriage into existence. The answers are not variations on a theme; they are different theories, and they produce different consequences when something goes wrong.

Catholic teaching locates the marriage in the consent of the two people. The couple are the ministers of the sacrament and the priest is a qualified witness. It follows that a defect in consent at the moment of the vows means there was never a marriage, and this is the whole basis of the declaration of nullity, which finds that nothing existed rather than ending something that did.

Islamic law locates it in a contract. Nikah requires an offer, an acceptance, witnesses, and a dower that is owed to the bride herself rather than to her family. A ceremony is customary and not necessary; no clergy are required; the document specifies obligations and may specify conditions the wife stipulates in advance, including conditions about divorce.

Jewish marriage joins two once-separate stages. Betrothal and marriage are now performed together under the canopy, effected by the giving of a ring before witnesses and accompanied by a written contract, read aloud, that sets out what the husband owes the wife and what she is owed if the marriage ends.

Hindu marriage is completed by an act rather than by words: the seventh of the steps taken together around the fire. Indian courts have had to decide cases on precisely this point, where a ceremony was begun and not finished.

Sikh Anand Karaj is four circuits of the Guru Granth Sahib while four hymns are sung, the scripture rather than an officiant standing as witness.

And the Quaker wedding removes the officiant entirely. The couple stand in the silence of a meeting for worship and declare themselves married, and everyone present signs the certificate. It is the clearest case in the West of a marriage created by a community's witness alone, and English law has recognised it since the eighteenth century.

Who May Marry Whom

Almost every tradition is currently in dispute about the boundaries of marriage, and the disputes are not the same dispute.

Same-sex marriage. In December 2023 the Vatican's doctrinal office published Fiducia Supplicans, permitting non-liturgical blessings of individuals in what it calls irregular situations, including same-sex couples, while restating that marriage is between a man and a woman and that nothing being blessed is a marriage. Within a month the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, led by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, issued a joint statement that such blessings could not be carried out in Africa without causing scandal; the statement was published with the agreement of Pope Francis. The Church of England's General Synod approved Prayers of Love and Faith in the same month, again as blessings rather than marriages, and the GAFCON grouping of Anglican provinces declared itself in impaired communion over it. The United Methodist Church removed its prohibitions on same-sex weddings and on gay clergy at its 2024 General Conference, after a quarter of its United States congregations had already left to form the Global Methodist Church. In Judaism, the Reform and Reconstructionist movements officiate; the Conservative movement's law committee approved same-sex ceremonies in 2012 while its 2006 responsum had already split on the underlying question; Orthodox authorities do not. Civil law has moved faster than most religious bodies: the United States Supreme Court required recognition nationally in 2015, and the Supreme Court of India declined to in 2023, unanimously on marriage itself and by three to two on whether civil unions were constitutionally required.

Interfaith marriage. Islamic law as classically stated permits a Muslim man to marry a Jewish or Christian woman and does not permit a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man; a minority of contemporary scholars contest the asymmetry and the majority position holds. Orthodox Judaism does not recognise intermarriage and the Conservative movement does not officiate at it, while Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis increasingly do; the question is bound up with a demographic argument about continuity that both sides deploy. Catholic law permits marriage to a baptised non-Catholic with permission and to an unbaptised person with a dispensation. Israel and Lebanon have no civil marriage, so couples of different religions travel abroad to marry and have that marriage registered on return.

Caste and lineage. Hindu marriage negotiation still commonly observes caste and gotra exogamy. India's Special Marriage Act of 1954 exists precisely to allow marriages that religious personal law would not solemnise, and it is used heavily.

When a Marriage Ends, and Whether It Can

Divorce sorts the traditions almost as sharply as marriage does.

Islamic law has always permitted divorce and has several routes to it, weighted unequally: talaq pronounced by the husband, khula initiated by the wife usually with a financial settlement, and judicial dissolution. The form known as triple talaq, three pronouncements at once, was held void and criminalised in India in 2019, and had already been abolished in most Muslim-majority jurisdictions.

Jewish law requires the husband to give a bill of divorce, the get, and the wife to accept it. A husband who refuses leaves his wife an agunah, chained, unable to remarry within the tradition however long she has been civilly divorced. Every Jewish denomination treats this as a genuine injustice and they disagree about the remedy: prenuptial agreements enforceable in civil court, rabbinic annulment, communal sanction. The problem is unresolved and the number of women affected is not small.

Catholic teaching holds a consummated sacramental marriage to be indissoluble and offers no divorce at all. What it offers is the declaration of nullity, and the distinction is real rather than a technicality, though it is widely treated as one. The pastoral pressure falls on the divorced and civilly remarried, who were long understood to be barred from communion. Amoris Laetitia in 2016 opened, in a footnote and by way of a chapter on discernment, the possibility of readmitting them case by case. Four cardinals formally asked Pope Francis to clarify whether that was what the document meant. He did not answer, and bishops' conferences in different countries subsequently issued guidance that pointed in opposite directions and remains in force in both.

Orthodox Christianity permits remarriage, with a penitential second rite, and has done for centuries, which is one of the quieter but more consequential differences between the two halves of the ancient church.

Hindu tradition had no general provision for divorce, and Indian statute supplied one in 1955.

Connections

Associated With

Levirate Marriage

Monogamy

The marriage ceremony is where the rule is enacted.

Polygyny

Belongs to Tradition

African Methodist Episcopal Church

Kept in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first denomination in the United States founded by Black people. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

Kept in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Anglican Communion

Kept across the provinces of the Anglican Communion. The marriage service of the Prayer Book, with its vow to have and to hold, is the ancestor of the wedding words used across the English-speaking world, including by people of no religion.

Anglicanism

The marriage service of the Prayer Book, with its vow to have and to hold, is the ancestor of the wedding words used across the English-speaking world, including by people of no religion.

Source The Book of Common PrayerChurch of England; ed. Brian Cummings

Armenian Apostolic Church

Kept in the Armenian Apostolic Church. The marriage rite is a crowning, as in the Byzantine churches, with a distinct anointing of the couple in the Coptic form.

Assyrian Church of the East

Marriage is a mystery of the church, with the crowning and the blessing of the ring.

Baptist

Marriage is solemnised by the congregation's minister and is not held to be a sacrament.

Source The Baptist Faith and MessageSouthern Baptist Convention

Beta Israel

Marriage follows the community's own rite.

Breslov Hasidism

Kept in Breslov Hasidism. Marriage is contracted by the giving of an object of value in the presence of two witnesses, and it is followed by the seven blessings.

Calvinism (Reformed)

Marriage is not a sacrament, and the Confession treats it under the law of God rather than under the ordinances of the church.

Source The Westminster Confession of FaithWestminster Assemblythe holders' own account

Chabad-Lubavitch

Kept in Chabad-Lubavitch. Marriage is contracted by the giving of an object of value in the presence of two witnesses, and it is followed by the seven blessings.

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

Kept in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Christianity

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Church of Cyprus

Kept in the Church of Cyprus, autocephalous since the Council of Ephesus in 431. The marriage service is the Crowning, and the priest is the minister of the sacrament rather than a witness to a contract the couple make, which is the opposite of the Roman analysis.

Church of England

Kept in the Church of England, the province from which the Prayer Book tradition comes. The marriage service of the Prayer Book, with its vow to have and to hold, is the ancestor of the wedding words used across the English-speaking world, including by people of no religion.

Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)

Marriage is solemnised by the congregation's minister.

Church of Greece

Kept in the Church of Greece. The marriage service is the Crowning, and the priest is the minister of the sacrament rather than a witness to a contract the couple make, which is the opposite of the Roman analysis.

Church of Ireland

Kept in the Church of Ireland. The marriage service of the Prayer Book, with its vow to have and to hold, is the ancestor of the wedding words used across the English-speaking world, including by people of no religion.

Church of Scotland

Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Marriage is not a sacrament, and the Confession treats it under the law of God rather than under the ordinances of the church.

Church of Sweden

Kept in the Church of Sweden, which retained the historic episcopate through the Reformation as few Lutheran churches did. Marriage is a civil estate blessed by the church rather than a sacrament, and Lutheran clergy marry.

Church of the Nazarene

Kept in the Church of the Nazarene, which stands in the Wesleyan holiness line. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Conservative Judaism

Marriage follows the traditional form, with a clause added to the marriage contract to protect a wife whose husband refuses a divorce.

Coptic Orthodoxy

Kept in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The marriage rite is a crowning, as in the Byzantine churches, with a distinct anointing of the couple in the Coptic form.

Disciples of Christ

Marriage is solemnised by the congregation's minister.

Dutch Reformed Church

Kept in the Dutch Reformed tradition, which holds the Heidelberg Catechism among its confessional standards. Marriage is not a sacrament, and the Confession treats it under the law of God rather than under the ordinances of the church.

Eastern Orthodoxy

The marriage service is the Crowning, and the priest is the minister of the sacrament rather than a witness to a contract the couple make, which is the opposite of the Roman analysis.

Source Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic ChurchIsabel Florence Hapgood (compiler and translator)

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Kept in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the see of first honour among the Orthodox churches. The marriage service is the Crowning, and the priest is the minister of the sacrament rather than a witness to a contract the couple make, which is the opposite of the Roman analysis.

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Kept in the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The marriage rite is a crowning, as in the Byzantine churches, with a distinct anointing of the couple in the Coptic form.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Kept in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The marriage rite is a crowning, as in the Byzantine churches, with a distinct anointing of the couple in the Coptic form.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Kept in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Marriage is a civil estate blessed by the church rather than a sacrament, and Lutheran clergy marry.

Free Methodist Church

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Georgian Orthodox Church

Kept in the Georgian Orthodox Church, which has used its own language and script in worship since the fifth century. The marriage service is the Crowning, and the priest is the minister of the sacrament rather than a witness to a contract the couple make, which is the opposite of the Roman analysis.

Global Methodist Church

Kept in the Global Methodist Church, formed in 2022. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Greek Orthodox Church

Kept in the Greek Orthodox churches. The marriage service is the Crowning, and the priest is the minister of the sacrament rather than a witness to a contract the couple make, which is the opposite of the Roman analysis.

Haredi Judaism

Kept in Haredi Judaism, where the halakhic standard is the strictest and the most stringent opinion is ordinarily followed. Marriage is contracted by the giving of an object of value in the presence of two witnesses, and it is followed by the seven blessings.

Hasidic Judaism

Kept in Hasidic Judaism. Marriage is contracted by the giving of an object of value in the presence of two witnesses, and it is followed by the seven blessings.

Hinduism

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Humanistic Judaism

Marriage is solemnised by this movement's own celebrants.

Islam

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Judaism

Source Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici)Holy Seethe holders' own account

Karaite Judaism

Marriage is contracted within the community, and Karaite marriage law has its own rules of forbidden degrees which differ from the rabbinic ones.

Lutheranism

Marriage is a civil estate blessed by the church rather than a sacrament, and Lutheran clergy marry.

Source The Augsburg ConfessionPhilipp Melanchthon

Maronite Church

The marriage rite is a crowning in the Syriac form.

Mennonites

Marriage is within the church, and the Dordrecht confession restricts it to those of the same faith.

Source The Dordrecht Confession of FaithDutch Mennonite ministers assembled at Dordrecht

Methodism

The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Source The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Churchthe holders' own account

Modern Orthodox Judaism

Kept in Modern Orthodox Judaism, alongside full engagement with secular study and with the state. Marriage is contracted by the giving of an object of value in the presence of two witnesses, and it is followed by the seven blessings.

Moravian Church

Marriage is solemnised in the congregation.

National Baptist Convention of America

Kept in the National Baptist Convention of America International. Marriage is solemnised by the congregation's minister and is not held to be a sacrament.

Old Believers

The crowning is served from the older books. In the priestless communities marriage has been a standing problem, since there is no priest to serve it.

Oriental Orthodoxy

The marriage rite is a crowning, as in the Byzantine churches, with a distinct anointing of the couple in the Coptic form.

Source The Egyptian or Coptic Church: A Detailed Description of Her Liturgical ServicesO. H. E. KHS-Burmester

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Conducted By

Pastor

A pastor officiates at marriages in the Protestant churches.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Element Of

African Initiated Churches

Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson

Charismatic Movement

Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson

Hanafi School