JW Weddings. Avoid Paganism at all costs!

by MinisterAmos 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  MinisterAmos

  I'm b-a-c-k!

  The grandfather of the groom performed the ceremony. The fart totally embarrassed the bride by making her repeat his long-winded vows with no coaching.

  Bonus points: The bride speaks no English and was not permitted to practice! Not even a cheat sheet! I congratulated the grandfather afterwards on his ability to "teach those furriners to speak English" but the sarcasm was lost on him. A third gen Dub himself he has no clue about how to live in the real world.

  The father-of-the-groom fired the band in mid song because they played "Here comes the Bride" at the reception. Too worldly?

  The groom refused to leave the reception to consumate the vows? The Dude is 32ish and the bride mid-20's. I know at least one JW couple who are still FARKING VIRGINS after seven years of marriage (unfortunately I am serious)! The same thing might happen here especially considering the groom did not even touch the bride at the reception!

  No decorating the car (not that they ever left the reception) because that is "worldly"

  The Dubs are really into line dancing.

  Meh
• 

  blondie

  About the history, origins, and story behind the famous wedding song Here Comes the Bride also known as the Bridal Chorus.

  STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS YOU GREW UP WITH

  "HERE COMES THE BRIDE," Richard Wagner--1848

  The "Bridal Chorus," played at almost all traditional weddings as the happy couple marches to the altar, is sung in quite a different setting in Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin. In this opera, the chorus starts singing as the hero, Lohengrin, accompanied by his new wife, Elsa, enters the bridal chamber, which is dominated by a very large bed. Their attendants then help them disrobe for their wedding night. Because of this sexually oriented scene, some religious sects have objected to using the "Bridal Chorus" as a wedding march.

  Wagner wrote Lohengrin in 1848, but it was ignored until 1850, when Franz Liszt presented the opera at Weimar. The production, which was five hours long, was not seen by Wagner. He was living outside of Germany at the time because he was afraid of being arrested for having engaged in revolutionary activities. He finally attended a production of Lohengrin in Paris in 1861. The "Bridal Chorus" had already been used as the wedding march at its first royal wedding, that of Princess Victoria, the daughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858. From then on, the "Bridal Chorus" was a traditional wedding march.

  The story of Lohengrin is classic. The hero, Lohengrin, arrives in Antwerp in a boat drawn by a swan. He defends Elsa and wins her as his bride, but he makes her promise never to ask him his real name or where he comes from. Encouraged by the heartless Ortrud, she does ask Lohengrin on their wedding night, and he is obligated by his vows to the Grail to leave her forever. So Lohengrin and Elsa do not live together until "death us do part," but rather quickly separate. Critics have said that the "Bridal Chorus" is one of the weakest parts of this opera.

  Wagner, incidentally, had a tendency to put women on pedestals and then knock them off when they didn't live up to his expectations. Today he would be called a male chauvinist for his negative views about equal rights for women. During W.W.II, Wagner's heroic works were so identified with Nazi Germany that his operas were rarely produced by the Allies. Despite this, English-speaking countries retained the "Bridal Chorus" as a wedding march.
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  OnTheWayOut

  Not to mix threads, but eventually they might just insist that JW's just have
  a get-together after the wedding with homemade lasagna and chicken, potatoe
  salad, and generic 2 liter soda. Then they will say that instead of giving
  gifts to the Bride and Groom, a pagan act, they can donate money to the
  worldwide work of WTS.
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  Forscher

  I guess they need to start leaving out kissing the bride as well.

  That one has some rather dubious origins including some association with an ancient pagan custom in which the senior chieftan of a the tribe or clan had the right to bed the bride before groom could (that custom is portrayed in Mel Gibson's Wallace and may well be the real origin of the custom of years gone by of most males giving the bride a little peck). Even into Christian times the bride and groom in some lands were expected to consumate their marraiges with witnesses, usually matrons from both families, present. I even remember a reading as historical romance novel one time which portraid the custom in the time of Richard the Lionheart with a scene where both the bride and groom had to disrobe completely in front of all the guests at their wedding feast and then parade through the assemblage completely nude to make their way to their bed. That is what Wagner potraid in his opera. That custom likely goes back to pagan times and is likely the origin of the bridal kiss.

  As somebody pointed out, about the only way to avoid pagan associations altogether would be for the groom to pick his new bride up at her home and take her to the marraige feast at his home. And by the way, he would also want to present the sheet they made love on to her parents as that was also required by the law of Moses. He, he.

  Forscher
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  Hecklerboy

  I remember being at a JW wedding when the elder giving the wedding talk mentioned that the rings had pagan origins but that the JW no longer recognize them in that sense.

  I thought, how can they pick and choose what is pagan and what isn't. That was the beginning of the end for me.
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  onlycurious

  I read somewhere a while back that everthing in our wedding ceremonies has meaning. I was really impressed because I love culture but had never been told about our own wedding culture.

  White = Purity

  Cake Cutting = Giving up your virginity

  Garter = Submission to your husband

  That's all I remember but I remember that at every wedding I attend.