When did the idea of ​​marriage first appear?

Engagements, weddings, marriage contracts, dowries, rings and much more… It is a very long and grueling process, but besides that, it is a reminder that two people’s lives are united. Marriage is one of the strongest signs of marriage.

At this point, let’s make a time travel about marriage from the past to the present and examine the applied traditions in depth. How long has this idea existed? let’s see.

How did the concept of marriage appear in early civilizations?

In time, male-female relations began to take various forms according to the traditions of each civilization. For example, it was customary for young Sumerian girls to be dedicated to temples, and these girls were It was believed that he lived with the representatives of the god.

In addition, marriage was subject to certain laws. According to Sumerian law, the rights of parents over their children were equal, but in some cases, a man’s It was quite normal for him to sell his wife. Women who cheated on their husbands were sentenced to death, and women who could not have children were divorced by their husbands.

It was almost a tradition for the pharaohs in Egypt to marry their sisters!

With these sister marriages, it was ensured that the person who would ascend to the throne was of the blood of the pharaoh, and in time The custom of marrying a sister also spread among the people.. In addition, the pharaohs had harems of the most distinguished girls of the country.

Unlike the Sumerians, the Egyptians the dominance of women was quite high and they had a considerable say. Meticulous marriages were well-founded, so divorces were rare.

Babylonian men could live without marrying a woman of their choice.

In general, this was the case in Babylon, but when it came to marriage, this process and the person to be chosen were completely decided by the parents. Girls, who are thought to be of marriageable age, are accepted by their fathers on a certain day of the year. It was brought to large areas of cities to be exhibited.

Men who wanted to get married also gathered in these areas and tried to choose a spouse according to their own taste. Here an officer would initiate the introduction of the girls and He used to sell all the girls at auction one by one.

In China, marriage had little to do with love.

Young girls and boys were brought up in distant environments until they got married and were not allowed to communicate much. Just like in Babylon, the mother and father decided the marriage in China, and they made all the preparations. Moreover A man who was older and could not marry was not considered well. because this society wanted the young people to get married as soon as possible as they demanded an increase in their population.

In ancient Greece, however, things were quite different. In this region, marriage was seen as a kind of shopping and the girl’s father prepared the dowry for the groom. In return, the groom had to buy valuable gifts for his father-in-law. Again, the Greeks believed that love comes after marriage.

In ancient Greece, husbands could hire their wives to high-ranking people!

The greatest goal of the men of this region was to raise talented and strong children. Also for women The most suitable marriage age was 20. Again, there was an unbelievable method for young girls and men who were past the age of marriage but could not get married as soon as possible.

Men and women who want to get married meet in the big dark room, where the men, without seeing the faces of women, he would randomly choose people to be his wives. In general, in Ancient Greece, they claimed that husbands and wives never cheated on each other, and they were proud of it. Thus, divorces were also very rare.

So how did the marriage contracts come about?

The papyrus in the image is known in the world. It is one of the oldest marriage contracts. and it is thought to belong to the couple Pa-igesh and Ta-ti-lyemhotep. This contract was written in a type of pictogram called demotic, which is very similar to the hieroglyphic.

Looking at the details of the contract, male; when it comes to divorce while agreeing to the condition of paying the specified amount of money within thirty daysthe woman could receive one-third of the property specified in this agreement.

When it comes to children, it is noteworthy that the children should be brought up as the heirs of the man. Also on the back of the papyrus, names of eight witnesses to the contract has also been added.

These contracts first began to be recorded in Ancient Egypt between 661-332 before Islam and continued into the first century after Islam.

These agreements were mostly prepared by the men and included the rights of both parties in terms of alimony and property. But under the laws of that time marriages were not required to be registered, and It was possible for a woman to leave her husband and get a divorce.

For the divorce to be valid the woman’s inability to bear children, the emergence of one of the parties’ coexistence with another, There were conditions that the man did not like his wife and wanted to marry another woman. In addition, whatever the reason for the divorce, the woman had the right to receive help from her husband and both parties were free to remarry after the divorce.

The oldest known marriage certificate; A Jewish papyrus written in Aramaic from the 5th century BC. This papyrus He writes that a 14-year-old girl was married off in exchange for 6 cows.

Let’s come to the tradition of wedding dresses and veils.

In the Assyrians, the wedding ceremony was performed with the woman covering her head in front of the witnesses, and at that time in Northern European countries. only abducted brides covered their faces. In the 4th century BC, translucent veils gained popularity among the Romans and Greeks.

By the 16th century, wedding dresses began to become quite common in France and England. in Turkey too the custom of wearing a wedding dress is considered to be of Western origin but the importance given to the veil and the bride’s head is much older. It is also possible to see that red veils still exist at village weddings or in different cities.

Finally, let’s talk about two different legends about how the wedding ring came about.

One of the theories; that the wedding ring binds men to their women. According to this claim, He used to tie the hands and feet of the woman he loved with a rope. and if he believed that the woman would not run away, he would untie his feet, if he trusted completely, he would untie his hands and tie the untied string to his finger. This bond was also considered as a symbol of the love that binds husband and wife together.

Another legend is that the history of the ring dates back to 2000 BC. In ancient Egypt, some plants were given the shape of a ring, and this was inspired by the shape of a circle, which means infinity, and signifies the immortality of love was also considered.

During the Roman period, iron began to be preferred as the ring material and was worn only by women. The ring was worn on the fourth finger of the left hand thousands of years ago, just as it is now. The reason for this the belief that a vein passing through the finger reaches the heart directly. However, this idea is not a belief and truth that was adopted only at that time.

In time, the rings began to be made entirely of gold, and in 860 Pope Nicolas, mandated the gold ring as a symbol of marriage to engaged couples. However, wedding and engagement rings were separated from each other and the tradition of wearing them in ceremonies emerged.