Jewellery News

There is a longstanding tradition in western cultures of playing The Wedding March at the beginning of a marriage ceremony. The Wedding March, commonly known as “Here Comes The Bride” and officially known as “The Bridal Chorus” is from the opera Lohengrin by German composer Richard Wagner. The title The Wedding March also often refers to Felix Mendelsson’s Wedding March which is sometimes played at the entrance or exit of the bride. There are some unusual, or little known, facts surrounding the playing of Wagner’s Bridal Chorus at weddings.

One oddity regarding the song being played as a prelude to the wedding is it’s placement in the ceremony. Although the Bridal Chorus is almost exclusively played at the beginning of a ceremony, in Wagner’s opera the chorus is played at the end of the ceremony. Another fact that makes the Bridal Chorus an unusual choice to play at the start of any wedding ceremony is that the couple’s marriage that it is played for in the opera suffers an almost immediate failure.

Some religions or denominations also have restrictions or outright bans of Wagner’s Bridal Chorus in their wedding ceremonies. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod doesn’t allow The Bridal Chorus played in their ceremonies at all due to, among other reasons, perceived pagan connotations in Wagner’s plays. The Catholic Church usually will not allow it to be played as it is classified as a secular piece of music and they have rules about secular music played during a religious ceremony. Though not officially ruled on, most Jewish weddings do not include The Bridal Chorus in wedding ceremonies as a result of the Nazis use of Wagner’s music as well as Wagner’s reputation as an anti-semite.

Though traditional and perceived as normal, there are many things that are little known about most wedding traditions. Sometimes it’s nice to look a little bit deeper into things we take for granted, if only for the fact that you now have a “did you know” moment to share with others at your next wedding reception