A Wedding Ritual From a Durkheim Perspective

¶ … collective ideals, religion is reinforced through ceremonies and rituals," (Calhoun, et al., 2012, p. 199). One of the most important ceremonies that reinforces cultural norms and institutions is the wedding ceremony. I had the opportunity to attend a wedding at a church recently, providing an opportunity to analyze Durkheim's sociological theories and apply them to daily life.

I selected this ritual because I do not attend many other rituals that have a religious context like this one, and because I have attended two other weddings and none of the three were from the same religious tradition. Therefore, my observations highlight some of Durkheim's core theories about the ways social bonds are reinforced through ritual, regardless of the technical manifestations of those rituals. My observations also show how even in modern, secular societies, the concept of the "sacred" remains salient for individuals and their communities.

The wedding I attended took place on August 1, 2015 at the Windsor Chapel in Vero Beach, Florida. My cousin was the person getting married, making the ceremony particularly meaningful to me personally. A relatively small wedding by some standards, a total of 128 people were in attendance and only twenty-two people were part of the formal wedding party, including family members of the bride and the groom serving in various ritualistic roles such as maid of honor and bridesmaids for females and best man and groomsmen for the males.

Demographics reflected the diversity of the community, and included Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic men and women. Socio-economic backgrounds were likewise diverse. Comingling was actively encouraged, lubricated by the presence of an open bar paid for by the bride's parents. While awaiting for the guests to arrive, the members of the formal wedding party -- what can be considered an "inner circle" -- interacted with one another and took photos. The ritual itself began with a prelude from the chapel organ.

Music is commonly used in religious ceremonies and functions, as a symbolic marker of time. In this case, the organ music represented the start of sacred time -- just as the space set aside for the wedding ceremony was designated as a private, sacred space for the purposes of the ritual. Once the organ started, all members including both guests and family members, understood implicitly that the ceremony had begun and an attitude of solemnity ensued. Likewise, the closure of the ceremony was marked also by music.

This time, the ritual ended with the recessional from the chapel organ playing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." When "Hallelujah Chorus" was complete, the guests and family knew the ritual was over and the more informal aspects of the wedding could begin. Durkheim's theories of the collective consciousness manifest through religion and other formal ceremonies was immediately apparent. For one, Durkheim notes that societies reinforce their norms and institutions through rituals of solidarity. In fact, Greenwald claims that Durkheim equates society with social solidarity (1973, p. 157).

In other words, rituals like wedding ceremonies provide the glue that binds people together and helps people feel like they are part of a collective group. Second, Durkheim's notion of the collective consciousness is meted out in rituals like these, in which all people recognize the form, function, value, and implications of the wedding ritual. The wedding symbolizes the joining together of two families, just as much as it represents the personal sharing of time and space between the bride and groom.

Bride and groom could have chosen to simply live together their entire lives without getting married, but the social institution of marriage is far too important to their identity and to the values held by their family members. Furthermore, the wedding is an outward expression of inner values and ideals. Durkheim would have noted that "men express their ideas of themselves by acting them out and putting them on exhibition," (Greenwald, 1973, p. 157). Both bride and groom acted out their roles in society through this ritual.

Primary actors in the ritual included the bride and groom, the families of the bride and groom including their parents, the best man, maid of honor, bridesmaids, and groomsmen. These are the parties closest to the bride and groom, each of whom had specific roles to play in the ritual. Other actors included the officiator and the ushers. Occasionally, individuals would act in unison and at times as separate entities performing their designated roles. For example, the processional involved multiple members of the family party.

Similarly, the exchange of vows did not just involve the bride and groom but also the official and the observers as well. At other times, the official would speak alone acting more as an individual establishing his authority. Also establishing religious authority were the symbols used to remind us of the religious import of the.