We recently have had the opportunity to attend two different Engagement Ceremonies. We had been to one right after we arrived in Japan but did not really know what was going on/ why they did them. This last one was totally bi-lingual and it was nice to be able to understand.
Apparently it is ancient tradition for the wedding to begin with an Engagement Ceremony. The first was fourteen hundred years ago. This ceremony was called “Yunio”. The groom’s family and the bride’s family meet up during the ceremony for the very first time, talk to each other, share meals and give gifts to each other, each symbolic of something...
• Konbu or Kelp: The character symbolizes fertility.
• Dried Cuttlefish: It is phallic in shape.
• Folded Fan: The spread of the fan depicts growth and future wealth.
• Long Thread of Linen: It symbolizes the graying of hair during old age.
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Now the churches in Japan are a bit different. They hold a konyakushiki, an Engagement ceremony which is a worship service to celebrate and where the couple take vows and are charged by the pastor.
In one we just attended the address to the couple was...
"Engagement is a promise of preparation made, looking to God's will, in anticipation of marriage. May these two becoming engaged be enabled to maintain a relationship of purity before the holy God of grace. May their love and understanding grow deeper as they await their wedding day, not having grieved the Holy Spirit."
The vows they took were...
"As you enter into engagement, do you promise before God and man to have a holy and pure relationship from this point on in imitation of the holy love with which the Lord Jesus Christ loved His church?"
We pray these two couples have joy in these next months as they prepare to be man and wife. Thank God with us for 2 more wonderful couples who love the Lord and have a heart for Japan. May God use them mightily in many lives (especially in the lives of their immediate family as they see firsthand God's love through their love for each other).
1 comment:
Taiwan also has engagement ceremonies . . .which sound quite similar to what you are describing.
The parents also take vows here. They pledge their acceptance of their son's wife as their own daughter or of their daughter's husband as their own son. And, the children also pledge to follow their parens-in-law as they would their own parents.
Pretty neat.
Now, I wonder if it started in Taiwan because of the Japanese occupation or if it just happens to be in both cultures. Guess I'll have to research that now.
Came here via http://www.missionary-blogs.com/
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