On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C posted in Divorce on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Most St. Louis residents who get divorced this year may do little to mark the occasion of the formal end of their marriage.
But there are divorce rituals emerging around the world that may give people here and elsewhere interesting ideas on how they can memorialize this important moment in their lives.
For example, in Japan there’s a temple where visitors may flush away their failed marriage and its bad karma by writing their end-of-marriage wishes on a sheet of writing paper and then flushing it all down a toilet.
The temple has historically served as a refuge for women who wanted to get out of failing marriages, a temple spokesperson told Reuters.
In Germany, a bishop there has called on religious institutions to develop rituals, such as a Mass of Lament, to help divorcing people declare their reasons for splitting up to gathered friends and families.
In France (and elsewhere), people are developing divorce ceremonies in which one or both halves of the couple might fling their wedding rings into the Seine River in Paris (or the Mississippi River here). We wonder if there will be follow-up salvage businesses to retrieve those bands of gold.
The Unitarian Universalists’ call their divorce ceremony a “ceremony of hope.” The church ceremony is with a minister, family and friends — the same sorts of people who were invited to witness the beginning of the marriage.
During the ceremony, the spouses apologize to each other and ask forgiveness for any pain they may have caused in the marriage.
Our firm handles the legal end of marriages. If you would like to learn more about our practice, please visit our St. Louis family law page.
Source: Huffington Post, “Interesting Divorce Customs,” July 21, 2012