"The most general social object" of a wedding rite is "to give publicity to the union" (Westermarck). By this the legal as well as the religious sanction of the union is established. The contract is made binding in that all the members of the com munity bear witness to it ; it is hallowed in that the two mates solemnly and openly declare before man, God or other spiritual powers that they belong to each other.
A. Biological Symbolism.—Thus the fundamental purpose of marriage, the continuity of the race, is indicated in wedding ceremonies by ritual, intended to make the union fruitful, to obviate the dangers associated with sexual intercourse, especially with defloration, and to facilitate the various stages of the process of generation from the first act to delivery. Among the fertility rites a prominent place is taken by the use of fruit or grain or other cereals, which are sprinkled over the newly-wedded couple or on or round the nuptial bed, or handed to them or brought into contact with them in some other way. Rites, such as the accom paniment of the bride by a little child, the use of various sym bols of generation, and the direct offering of prayers and sacrifices, are all intended to make the union fruitful. The breaking of some object at the wedding serves to avert the dangers of deflora tion and to facilitate the consummation of the union. The undo ing of knots and laces, found in many wedding rites, makes for easy delivery at childbirth. In all these acts we see the ritual expression of the biological nature of marriage.
B. Marriage as a Crisis.—As an official and public recognition of a biological fact, as the most important contract ever entered by two individuals, and as the act which creates a new social en tity, the family, marriage is a crisis. Now a crisis in human life is always surrounded by powerful emotions: forebodings and hopes, fears and joyful anticipations. Innumerable wedding rites are in existence which are obviously intended to remove the dangers associated with the crisis of marriage.
Dangers apprehended in subjective forebodings are usually conceived in the form of evil agencies : demons or ghosts or malev olent spirits, forces of black magic, mysterious concatenations of ill-luck. These have to be kept at bay or counteracted, and we
find innumerable rites intended to avert ill fortune and bring happiness and good chance to the new household. Among these are the avoidance of certain days and places as unlucky, or on the other hand the selection of certain days as being of good omen; the shutting out of evil influences from the place where the wed ding is being celebrated ; the making of noises, the firing or brand ishing of some weapon; the bathing or washing of bride and bridegroom or sprinkling them with water; the lighting of fires and waving of torches ; the circumambulation of the bridegroom's tent or of the church; the beating of the bridegroom's tent, and the observance by the bride and bridegroom of various kinds of abstinences with regard to action and eating. Other forms in which bad luck can be side-tracked are : the disguising of the real actors, who may dress in the clothes of the opposite sex, cover themselves, or paint their faces. ; the substitution for them of effigies; marriage by proxy; and the contracting of mock mar riages with trees or animals or inanimate objects. Finally an im portant antidote against all supernatural dangers is the state of spiritual invulnerability which is achieved by moral purity and the observance of those mixed ethical and ritual rules which in primitive culture often surround important acts of human life. The most important tabu of this kind, in connection with mar riage is obviously the tabu of sex-continence. The principle that the bride and the bridegroom have to abstain from intercourse for some time after the wedding, is known all over the world from primitive savagery to the most refined ethics of the Christian church, from Australia to the New World (cf. Westermarck, II., 547-564), while on the wedding night there are occasionally other minor abstinences.
It is characteristic that while the bride and the bridegroom are often considered in a state dangerous not only to themselves but also to others, they are at the same time a source of blessing and of beneficent influences. Thus certain rites are supposed to influ ence favourably the welfare of other persons even independently of their relations to the principals; joining in at a wedding is sometimes believed to produce benefit ; a wedding is looked upon as a potential cause of other weddings ; while good luck is often expected from contact with the bride or bridegroom or something worn by them.