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In response to
"ever have anyone pipe up in the "speak now" bit? -- nm"
by
mafic
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We don't do that in american (unless you belong to a european tradition church or have a minister that watches the same movies) and why?
Posted by
zeitgeist
Dec 20 '08, 23:00
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because to get married in the US you typically go the county court house or recorder's office and purchase a marriage 'license' which is literally that, your license to get married, so there is no objecting, just like you might object to the punk next door driving but if he got a license then only a judge can take it away.
the tradition started in europe long before there wre marriage or birth records, before we had last names, the only records were the collective memory of your village. so a couple wanting to marry had to announce the engagement at the town market, for a month before, and the minister would ask, not to see if hugh grant was gonna pop up to confess his love, but the town gossip to spill the beans that your daddy got around a bit too much or that one of you abandoned a family in the next town over.
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