www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Weddings on Sunday?

Our good friend Ukrainian Catholic's brother is getting married tomorrow. I am wondering about the Eastern Churches and their discipline on gettting married on Sunday. I believe in the Western Church that we usually don't get married on Sunday if at all. What's the rule on this? Why the difference?

These days we are very happy they chose to get married at all. I would suspect that for many couples the 2 days in the week that as the most suitable days to be married are the Saturday or Sunday. I could immagine that the Priest would aim for a Saturday but if they have to use Sunday for any reason, it would have to be after the usual times of the D. Liturgy. Economia!

Traditionally in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, weddings are on Sunday after the Divine Liturgy.

In the past Weddings were not celebrated on Saturdays, because a dance could not be held after Vespers/ 5 p.m.

In Canada, after WW2, people began having weddings on Saturdays.

However, there is a trend now in the past 10 years to go back to having weddings on Sundays.

The Old Believers and Old Ritualists typically have weddings on Sundays. This is a very old custom.

Like Miller has mentioned I have also cantored for or attended many Ukrainian weddings over the years on Sunday after the DL.
FDD

Every Orthodox wedding I have attended has been on a Sunday evening. Saturday evening is considered a day of preparation for Sunday.

It is my understanding that there is no theological/doctrinal reason that Latins typically are not married on Sunday. The problem is procedural. The church and clergy are just too busy to accommodate Sunday weddings in the Latin church, by and large.

My parents were married on a Friday night.

Amber and I were married on a Saturday morning, as Monsignor Harry Jerome told us that's how they did weddings in the old days.

Dear Dr Eric,

Sundays are the traditional days for the celebration of ALL the major Mysteries/Sacraments including Baptisms/Chrismations, ordinations/consecrations, and Crownings/weddings.

The reason my in-laws gave for why we had to get married on a Saturday was . . . drinking by-laws . . .

I'm attending a wedding this weekend where there will be a short service Saturday afternoon (so people wouldn't have to go home but could move to the reception right after). The bride and groom have been living together for a while now so I guess the service is a kind of "supplicatory canon of relief" for the parents (?).

The way EC's in my orbit have come to celebrate "weddings" is truly NOT in keeping with our beautiful traditions - in fact, it is the crassest form of Westernization.

The Mystery of Crowning (if it is even called that any more) is done outside the context of the Divine Liturgy as a separate service, on Saturdays, with a number of traditions dropped and with many wearing their wedding rings on their left hand (the reason given is that everyone wears their rings on their left hand as a kind of "insurance" or signal to others of the opposite sex that they are married and "off limits." Personally, I think that is nonsense - there are those who think that affairs with married people are "safe" etc.!).

To have the Crowning service in conjunction with the Divine Liturgy is to truly bring Christ into a marriage as the third and most important "Partner" of all!

Yes, it takes a little longer. As our parish priest used to say, "But no one ever suggests shortening the reception afterwards!"

To hold it on Sundays is to underscore the high spiritual calling of those entering into the married state as well.

And then we complain when a deluge of divorce hits our younger generation! Go figure!

We've secularized marriage so much that the "Churchy" portion becomes almost like an "add-on" that might even be possibly dispensed with and, if it were, wouldn't change much about the wedding day.

Our priests and parents especially need to spend more time discussing these traditions with the younger generationas the real tools of evangelization that they are. They are not merely outward symbols.

I am currently working on an outline for this year's fall religion course and this topic is front and centre beginning in September!

I'm even going to have a "re-enactment" at the front of the auditorium with a boy and a girl in a mock marriage ceremony. They will be asked questions by others who are visitors to the event and the onus will be on them to explain the liturgical and other traditions . . .

Is that cool or what?

What do you think, Professor Dan?

Alex

Because of the wedding receptions which come afterwards, most weddings are on Saturdays around here....

(Those with Greek blood like to dance and party and nobody would want them to go to work tired the next day! ) :rolleyes:

As far as I knew, an ecclesiastical marriage could not be done without the crowning. I am confused, Alex.

( The Mystery of Marriage in the Orthodox Church has two distinct parts: The Betrothal and The Crowning. The Betrothal includes: The exchange of the rings, the procession, the declaration of intent and the lighting of candles. Then follows the Crowning, the epistle, the gospel, the Blessing of the Common Cup and the Dance of Isaiah, and then the Removal of the Crowns. Finally there is the Greeting of the Couple.)

So the guests spend one hour in church instead of a half hour. So what? Afterwards, the cocktail hour more than compensates for their tired feet and their patience!!! :p

Alice

Hi,

Liliana and I were married Sunday at 2:00pm during Mass.

In Mexico it is VERY uncommon to celebrate the sacrament of matrimony outside the celebration of the Eucharist.

Here in the States, I have yet to see a wedding during a Mass, Sunday or otherwise.

I am not sure there are strict rules about it, I just heard that weddings during penitential seasons (Lent and Advent) were strongly discouraged.

Shalom,
Memo

Dear Alice,

Obviously, so am I . . .

I thought what the West called "wedding" is what the East calls "Crowning?"

That's how they call it in the Ukrainian church.

The rest is "Greek" to me!

Yassous!

Alex

For those confused about Byzantine weddings consult St Elias internet site. All will be revealed there. Questions will be asked later so read well and learn. Those St Elias people have the best internet site.

On my daughter's wedding day(a Sunday) she attended DL at 9 a.m. with her fiance at his Ukranian Catholic Church and then returned to the church after a brief refreshment for the crowning ceremony, which began at 1 p.m. and lasted about an hour and 15 minutes(we suspect the priest shortened it slightly due to very crowded conditions in the church and a poorly functioning ac). The reception followed at about 2:30 and we sent the bride and groom off at about 6:30 p.m. It was a long day for all, but a very beautiful one and many of our Protestant and Roman Catholic friends found the whole day to be wonderful and moving and quite special. I should add that someone did, indeed, suggest that we shorten the length of the reception- the groom!
Michele

Michele,

Now that you have had time to reflect on the Crowning, do you see the mystery that is so intertwined with it more clearly?

Pani Rose

Dear Pani Rose,
I found myself reflecting on this very much in the weeks after the wedding. When Father touched the crowns to each of their heads and said (for instance)"The handmaiden of the Lord Sarah is crowned for His servant Matthew" I felt that it was very special and very permanent. My fervently Evangelical mother told the kids after the wedding: "Now you know you are well and truly married" and that about sums it up. I thought about how God joins husband and wife together and it truly is a mystery, the very definition of sacrament, because how can we ever understand truly what God does when He makes husband and wife one flesh? I had to laugh recently when my 16 yr old son told me that his dad and I had been married forever and that we were one person! Amazing!
Blessings
Michele