Marriage

HISTORY

In ancient Sparta, men who were unmarried by the time they were 30 forfeited the right to vote.

The Romans thought it unlucky to get married in May. According to the poet Ovid, "bad girls wed in May".

In ancient Rome, senators were forbidden to marry the daughter of an actor or actress.

Claudius II banned marriage for young Roman men because he believed single men made better soldiers.

In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Incas, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.

Augustine of Hippo declared that the purpose of marriage was procreation.

In the 1500's most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and they still smelled reasonably good in the following month. However, since they were starting to be a tad smelly, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

When John Laydon and Anna Burras married together in late 1608 in Jamestown, Virginia, it was the first ever Christian marriage in the American colonies. Anne Burras was the maid to Mrs. Thomas Forrest. She arrived in Jamestown aged 14, on September 30, 1608 on the Mary and Margaret, the ship bringing the Second Supply to the colony. Their daughter Virginia Laydon was the first child of English colonists to be born in the Jamestown colony.

Between childbirth, communicable disease, and natural disaster, the average marriage in colonial America lasted under 12 years.

Peter I of Russia issued a decree on January 31, 1714 allowing young men to get married only after they had completed their studies.

In Georgian Britain marriage unions were often arranged by parents who had no heir and were looking for their daughter to marry well. Single London women would often head for the Assembly Rooms, where they could parade in front of a host of eligible bachelors.

Until 1912, if a woman in the UK committed a crime in her husband's presence, he was legally considered to have coerced her into doing it.

In 1938 the state of New York passed a law requiring medical tests for marriage license applicants, the first US state to do so.

The United States Supreme Court declared in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case that all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage are unconstitutional.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko became on August 10, 2003 the first person to marry in space. He married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles over New Zealand, on the International Space Station.

Cosmonaut Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko

FUN MARRIAGE FACTS

Research has shown that men who are smaller at birth are significantly less likely to get married.

If you're 16 and older, there's a 20% chance that you've already met the person you'll one day marry.

The original phrase "tying the knot" came from Swiss royalty using symbolic pretzels at wedding ceremonies.

Wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because the Romans believed that a nerve led directly from there to the heart.

A bride in China traditionally wears the color red.

Polygamy is still rife in parts of Africa. In Senegal, for example, nearly 47 percent of marriages are multiple.

The largest number of monogamous marriages is held by Glynn Wolfe, an American Baptist minister who resided in Blythe, California, Wolfe married 31 different times, although one of his marriages was annulled. Wolfe died on June 10, 1997 in a Redlands, California nursing home of heart disease at the age of 88. His body went unclaimed, and he was eventually buried in Blythe. Wolfe's first marriage was in 1927, and his last was in 1996. 

Wolfe's final marriage was to Linda Taylor, who holds the Guinness World Record for the most-married woman (23 times). The marriage was a publicity stunt, and a week after the wedding, Taylor went back to her hometown in Indiana, but she kept her married name. She died single in 2010.

Wolfe died a month and a half before his 89th birthday. When Wolfe passed away, none of the women he married and only one of his 19-odd children attended the funeral.

It is estimated that as many as 80% of the marriages in human history have been between first or second cousins.

10.4% of the world’s population is either in a marriage/relationship with their second cousin or closer relative or is the result of such a union.

It is legal to marry your first cousin in California and New York... but not in Kentucky, Louisiana, or Mississippi.

About 70% of Asian women are in their first marriage, versus 54% white women, 53% Hispanic women, and 37% black women.

Britain’s shortest marriage  is said to be the four days Tammy Driver, 21, and Nicky Pearce, 29, were together before a violent row at their home near Aberdare, South Wales, led to him being jailed.

The longest marriage ever recorded is that of David Jacob Hiller and Sarah Davy Hiller, who were married for 88 years 349 days, as of April 8, 1898, when Mrs. Hiller passed away. They were married in 1810 in North Carolina, USA. The couple had 10 children and 54 grandchildren. They were both devout Christians and active members of their church. They were also known for their strong work ethic and their commitment to each other. David Hiller was a farmer and Sarah Hiller was a homemaker. 

Another North Carolina hold the record for the longest 20th century marriage. North Carolina couple Zelmyra and Herbert Fisher were married on May 13, 1924, and stayed together 86 years and 290 days until Herbert passed away in 2011 at the age of 105. Zelmyra passed away two years later, also at the age of 105.

Britain's longest marriage was between Karam and Katari Chand, of Bradford, who tied the knot in India in 1925 during the British Raj. They moved to England 40 years later and stayed together for 91 years until the death of Karam Chand, at the age of 110 on September 30, 2016.

Under French law it is possible, with permission from the President, to marry a dead person as long as you can prove they intended to marry you.

Source Mail On Sunday