Humanist Weddings are gaining Popularity
July 23, 2008 by Christine Gooding
Filed under Wedding Traditions and History
I read this article about Humanist Weddings gaining popularity and it made me pause and think what it means and how it is different from other wedding ceremonies. Apparently, more and more Scots are getting married the ‘humanist’ way.
So what is it exactly?
According to Wedding Guide UK
Humanists do not believe in God, but simply in ‘the good within human beings, in their equality, and in the individual’s right to freedom of choice in the main decisions of life’.
Consequently, a humanist wedding allows you to have a ceremony that focuses on these values and beliefs while still allowing you to express your individual personalities. It allows you the freedom to make your own personal choices about vows, music, readings, and venue. Humanist weddings can take place anywhere ‘safe and dignified’ and, unlike civil ceremonies conducted by a registrar, do not require the couple to get a special license. Your wedding ceremony can be held wherever you like, indoors or out, be it in a marquee, by a river or in your own home.
The Humanist ceremony respects virtually all situations; remarriage after divorce weddings between people of different faiths or of no faith, and ceremonies allowing gay couples to declare their love and commitment to one another (these unions are recognised as a civil partnership).
It is now the fourth most popular type of wedding to be officially classed as religious – although humanism itself is not a religion.
The Humanist Society of Scotland conducted 710 marriages last year – compared with 82 in the first year they were allowed.
This was despite a drop in the total number of weddings in Scotland.
There was also a fall in the number of weddings carried out by both the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church.
Any humanists out there? Care to share stories and photos of your Humanist wedding? Quite curious about it!
Source: BBC News
Hi Christine
I’ve only just stumbled upon your post, which is interesting. Actually, it’s not just the Scots who want humanist weddings – people are choosing to come here from all over the world in order to marry in a humanist wedding ceremony.
I think the real reason people choose a humanist ceremony is that it gives them a chance to say, in their own words, why they love one another and what they hope for the future, in front of the most important people in their lives.
The celebrant’s role is to help the couple to create a ceremony that’s personal to them, that expresses their thoughts and hopes in the kind of language that they would use and then to speak on their behalf on the big day.
My wife Juliet and I had a blessing ceremony just before humanist weddings became legal in Scotland in June 2005 and we both found the experience so inspiring that we trained to become celebrants ourselves. We had already had a civil ceremony with a registrar in order to be legally married and while it was perfectly pleasant, it was the experience of the humanist ceremony four days later where we were able to say what we felt about one another that made us feel ‘truly’ married; it was a genuinely life changing experience!