Marriage Rituals in India and United States

Marriage can usually be defined as a formal union of men and women approved by law, through which it becomes a couple (Webster Dictionary). The definition of this marriage is common in various parts of the world, but the way people decide to marry is quite different. The process of deciphering who spends the rest of life is a difficult task and most people adopt a different approach. In the United States, most people think that love is the main factor in deciding whether to marry someone or not.

There are some major differences in marriage between India and the United States. Marriage in India is entirely based on parental decision, but in the United States marriage is based on individualism. How to choose a spouse, how to choose it, how to choose it differs widely in both countries. Most Americans dating to find out who their future spouse is, and they know this person very well before marriage. Dating will not happen in India. Most of India did not talk to the bride and groom before the wedding, so they personally did not know the person they were married to (Nanda 624).

Indian families arrange marriages, and their parents and other families choose spouses for their own investment. Compared with the United States, divorce rate in India is very low, marriage is regarded as life. Compared with the top 50 countries in Sweden and the United States, India currently has a minimum divorce rate of 1%. Most people here usually marry at the age of 20 or 30, but in India more than half of the women get married by the age of 18.

This is true for many Indian women as marriage is very important for Indian society. In modern America, marriage is still important, but not as important as many women in India. Most Americans are still married at some point in their lives, but the number of singles is increasing in the US as well. In this context, widows in the United States are not as culturally defined as in India. There are few expectations or rules on what the widow should do or behave, so some researchers have explained the widow as a role-free role (O'Bryant, 1994). One way to prove this is to consider the role requirements of the wife and mother; you may come up with a nice list of good wives and mothers easily. But how do you answer this question? What makes a good widow?