Chronological Marriages

Marriages in the holy chronicles are generally very cheerful and happy affairs with a lot of colour, food, and music. The houses of the married couple are often decorated in bright flowers and grass are tied up on the walls. The ceremony itself is a very religious affair and a priest is invited from a local temple or shrine to read from the holy chronicles themselves. The ceremony is handled in the old dawntongue, the language spoken in Scandera when the gods walked the earth and have been preserved through scriptures. The religious aspect of the ritual can be divided into four parts, brudegava, blodbland, Smörning and finally edslöfte. Between each of these ceremonies does the clerics of the chronologically read old tales and cast blessings over the pair. Both to bless the marriage but also to inspire the young pair with the old heroes tales.

Brudegava

Brudegava or bridesgift is part of the ceremony where the groom gives the father of the bride a gift and in return are the groom handed the daughter. Traditionally so were the groom supposed to hand the father a weapon or lifestock but this have somewhat changed in the modern era and especially in the larger cities even if it is still very common to hand out lifestock or weapons in the countryside as part of the gift.

Blodbland

Blodbland or bloodmixing is considered the most important part of the ritual and with a ceremonial dagger provided by the groom so do both the wife and the groom cut their palm and let the blood mix in a bowl where priests add holy herbs and blessed oils and boils it. The young pair then helps to each take a sip until the whole bowl is finished. It is generally considered a good omen if a scar form as a result of the ceremony.

Smörjning

Smörjning or anointment is considered the second last part of the ritual where the cleric and the family of the couple wash their hairs and braid them while combing in perfumed oils and places flowers and holy medallions are placed in the hair of the pair.

Edslöfte

The ceremony is ended with the Edslöfte or "vow-promise" in a brilliant display of naming things that Scanderans are known for. Where the husband and wife swear one another loyalty and honesty and the husband hand the wives three keys, the key to the house, the key to the bedroom, and the key to the kitchen.

History

It is not known where the practice arose since the holy chronicles themselves mentions edslöften and smörjning as practices even before the birth of rasmer. Most theological scholars in the federation do argue that the practice was born out of early pre-gods chronological practices. This would mean that it is the union of the various animism, spirit and ancestor worshiping religions that the holy chronological faith was born from.

Other people have however argued that the practice also shares a lot of similarities between the ceremonies that bloodbrothers would preform to officially swear kinship to one another. This theory says that the marriage instead stems from the old practice of Scanderan chieftains to swear loyalty to one another. This also have some basis in the old tales were the ceremony are often described taking place between two men of high stature. Some people have been known to argue that this is an old remnant of the oldest version of the faith where close tribal chieftains would marry not only one woman but also one man in a polygamous marriage, a practice that was revived by some minor chronological sects, like Björkism even if the mainstream sects generally frown on the practice.