The Dhaka Times Desk We all know that marriage is a valid social bond between man and woman. There are different types of marriage, rituals and ceremonies depending on the religion, society, culture. However, there is a strange custom in the country where the dead and living people are 'ghost marriage'!
Many may be surprised to hear about marriage with a dead person. However, the practice of 'ghost marriage' of this dead person has been prevalent since ancient times. Even now i.e. even in this modern age in some countries unmarried dead people are married. The issue of this strange marriage has come up in this report.
Ghost wedding tradition is about 2500 years old. It is said that this strange marriage custom started during the first dynasty of China. The first dynasty of China was Qin. The country was ruled by the Qin Dynasty from 221 BC to 206 BC. However, the practice of ghost marriage is believed to have spread during the Han Dynasty. Their rule lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD.
Many may think that what was the reason for the practice of ghost marriage? All strange customs or traditions have been prevalent usually from a particular belief. It can be a religious or social belief. However, the main purpose of these rituals is to wish the well-being of the living or dead people of their own group.
There was a similar purpose in the development of this ghost marriage tradition in China. This ghost marriage is arranged for the arrangement of a partner in the afterlife of the deceased. They believed that if a man or woman dies unmarried, they should have a husband or wife in the afterlife.
It was believed that this would provide for the spouse of the dead man or woman and the well-being of the living members of his family. The most common form of ghost marriage was the marriage of a dead man to a dead woman. In this case, it is not important whether their marriage was valid while alive. While the main purpose of ghost marriage is to arrange a partner in the afterlife of a dead unmarried man or woman, it is not the only reason.
According to legend, if one dies unmarried and a proper ghost marriage is not arranged, his spirit roams around the living family members. He remains until a proper ghost wedding is arranged. They believed that the future of the younger generation was at stake when the spirit of the deceased resided with their family members.
So ghost marriages were not only performed for the dead. Sometimes it was more important for surviving family members. Ghost marriages were not only between dead men and women. If a man died unmarried and had a fiancee, the woman had to perform ghost marriage.
The marriage was completed by placing the woman in a symbol or another person in her place. The family of the deceased used to arrange for the protection of the girl. It is an important custom in ancient Chinese culture. However, if a woman died unmarried, it was not customary for the ghost of a living man to marry her.
Ghost marriage is said to have been practiced in China since ancient times. However, after seeing China, this custom became common in some other countries. A similar practice was practiced in France during the First World War. Many women's fiancés died in World War II. These women were still willing to marry them. Because of this, they had an imaginary marriage with the dead person.
After nearly 40 years of such ghost marriages in France, it was discontinued. But a few years after the suspension, a woman's fiance dies in an accident. This woman asks the authorities for permission to marry her dead fiance. He also got permission and the practice came to be known as 'posthumous marriage'.
Since then this custom has been preserved under the French Marriage Act. There are still laws allowing marriages with the dead in France for various reasons. In many tribal cultures of the world, the custom of ghost marriage is prevalent.
The Nuer tribe of Sudan is one of them. Their customs are quite peculiar. In the Nuer tribe, when the betrothed man dies, his brother usually participates in the wedding as a symbolic bridegroom. The living brother performs the ghost marriage ceremony on behalf of the dead brother. This wife is recognized as his dead brother's wife. However, even though he is a symbolic vessel, he actually lives with 'brother's wife'. If a child is born to them, that child is considered a descendant of the deceased.
The practice of marrying ghosts of the dead, which originated in ancient China, was banned in China in the late 1940s. However, this custom is still celebrated in rural areas of some Chinese provinces. There are also many evidences of dead bodies being stolen from graves to perform ghost marriage rituals. Especially women's bodies are stolen.
According to a report, between 2013 and 2016, the bodies of dozens of women were stolen in Hangzhou County, Shanxi Province, China. It is said that the families of unmarried dead men buy these stolen female corpses at exorbitant prices to give them in marriage. It is also known that a family once bought a dead body for 180 thousand yuan. Despite the ban, many people are said to have taken up the job of marrying the dead as a profession.
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