Lead story
Editor's note:
Summer wedding season is in full swing. In the months of preparation beforehand, many couples try to balance tradition and innovation, adapting cultural rituals they care about with their own personal values. That’s especially true when it comes to gender.
Historically, Christian and Jewish weddings were “essentially a transfer of property,” writes University of Colorado Boulder scholar Samira Mehta: “a woman went from being the responsibility of her father to being the responsibility of her husband.”
But feminism and marriage equality have reshaped many people’s expectations for partnership – and for how to celebrate it on the big day. In Jewish ceremonies, for example, some couples adapt the text of the “ketubah,” the Jewish marriage contract, to be more egalitarian and reflect the kind of relationship they hope to have. Other couples might adapt the final step of the wedding, when the groom traditionally stomps on a glass, to shatter it together.
Whatever a couple chooses, Mehta explains, each decision is an attempt to simultaneously honor tradition, and the kind of life they want to build together.
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