"Beyond the Grave" Nuptial Practices From Around the World

Source: http://www.ranker.com/list/after-dea...sktop-also-saw

Grotesque practices, especially when they involve true love conquering all, will always have a special place in the hearts and minds of "diehard" romantics. From Tim Burton's Corpse Bride to the Bride of Frankenstein to Cemetery Man's radiantly decapitated bride (who managed to blush prettily despite her deathly pallor), creepy ghost weddings have always been a staple of cinema and lore.

Some people don't know, however, that necrophilia-style shenanigans like spirit polygamy, combination marriage-and-funeral-rites, and even weddings to actual, decomposing bodies do go on in real life... and in the 21st century, no less. Below are some memorably ornate ceremonies that are probably commencing as we speak, in some church quietly masquerading as a mausoleum by day.

Japanese “Bride-Doll” Nuptials



According to Ellen Schattschneider, a sociocultural anthropologist and professor at Brandeis University, “bride doll” nuptials (which are actually sort of charming in their childlike symbolism) are still practiced in some parts of Japan. Basically, bride doll nuptials came about during WWII when lots of young men were dying in the field of battle, cut down before they ever had a chance to marry. To make up for this, the soul of the dead young man would be married to a consecrated stand-in figure - a doll representing his spouse. In a 2001 study published by Emory University, Schattschneider recalled an incident in which a mother hired a medium to speak with her deceased son. The soldier, speaking through the psychic, apparently lamented “his bitter loneliness in the voids between the worlds,” and he urged his mother to procure him a spirit spouse.

The ceremony took place at a nearby Buddhist temple and involved a bride doll, which was encased in a box with a photograph of the son. The two were presumably wed, and hopefully lived happily ever after.


The Macabre Tradition Of Sati, Or “Bride Burning”



Sati, the Hindu practice of “bride-burning” (a ceremony in which a bride willingly immolates herself on her husband's funeral pyre), is an ancient and particularly ghastly rite. As of 1988 and the Indian Sati Prevention Act, the rite is “officially” illegal, but it's been unofficially banned since 1829, and it's rarely been practiced since.

However, there are some modern-day instances of it. According to a report in the Times of India, a 60-year-old widow tried to burn herself on her husband's funeral pyre in 2009 but was stopped just in time. The last known “successfully” carried out sati was in 1987, and it was said (though never proven) that the family of the widow's husband had aided and abetted the act.

The 400-year-old Rani Sati Temple Complex in Rajasthan, however, has come under fire (no pun intended) for allegedly hosting “discreet congregations” that are said to glorify sati. The temple's official website even claims that the house of worship, which is named after a 13th-century “heroine” who succeeded in sacrificing herself, is inspired by “feminine bravery and spirit" - obviously a horribly regressive whoosh of hot air.


The Exhumed Corpse Brides Of China's "Ghost Marriage" Tradition



Frankenstein-inspired scientific experiment it ain't, but fresh (or not-so-fresh) bodies are still in high demand in some parts of China. In 2013, a court in the Shanxi province sent four grave robbers to prison for black market corpse dealing; the "buyers" were the families of recently deceased people who were in need of similarly recently deceased “spouses.” According to The Guardian, the tradition of ritual ghost marriage is rare in this day and age, but it's not unheard of. The idea is to furnish a deceased bride with a deceased groom (or vice versa) so that neither will be “lonely” in the afterlife.

Wealthy families - those who can afford fresh corpses - apparently pay much higher prices... and really wealthy ones can even “purchase their corpse brides straight from hospitals.” Lower-income families, however, have two options: they can either use a corpse stand-in like “a doughy human-shaped biscuit with black beans for eyes” or “buy an old, rotten corpse at a discounted price, dress it in clothing, and reinforce its skeleton with steel wire.” Plenty of choices for those on a budget.


Corpse Weddings In Present-Day France



Thanks to one of those whimsical, old-fashioned laws that never got around to getting overturned, it's apparently possible to wed the deceased in present day France. According to the New York Times, in fact, the law isn't even all that old; it was first established in 1959, when “the Malpasset Dam in southern France burst, inundating the town of Fréjus and claiming hundreds of lives.” When Charles de Gaulle, the French President at the time, visited the town in the wake of the disaster, a young woman apparently begged him to allow her to legally marry her fiancé... even though he had perished in the flood.

Gaulle consented, Parliament drafted a law, and the woman wed her departed beloved. Since then, apparently, various others have applied for the same nuptial permissions, and, after complicated petitioning procedures, been granted them; one notable occasion took place in 2004, when a woman married her late betrothed and, in the process, “became both widow and bride” in the course of one ceremony.


Mormon "Sealing Ceremonies"



Mormons (orthodox Mormons, at least) are well known for their rather quaint American Gothic lifestyles, as well as their penchant for polygamy, but not many know that they're also legally allowed to marry the dead. According to this interview with a former Mormon priest, posthumous “sealing” ceremonies are still common among present-day followers of Joseph Smith.

The idea is to bind the living and the dead together forever and to ensure that the dead are "eligible for entry into the highest echelons of heaven." Moreover, the deceased need not have consented to the marriage before their demise; they can apparently give “permission” for it from beyond the grave, and said permission can be obtained by priests who apparently have the ability to ask them about it.


Levirate Marriage: The Ceremony That Can Be Called Off With A Shoe



Levirate Marriage, otherwise known as Yibbum, is a Jewish tradition that states that a man must “marry the childless widow of his brother to produce a child who will carry the deceased brother's name, so that the deceased brother will not be forgotten.” The tradition, which was first mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy, seems cut and dry enough, but then it gets more complicated.

Should the brother of the deceased refuse to marry his sister-in-law, a ceremony called Halitza, AKA "the Removed Sandal," takes place. The widow “loosens or removes the brother-in-law's shoe, spits in front of his face, and says, 'So shall be done to a man who refuses to build up his brother's house.'” This ceremony is only performed by the most orthodox believers, nowadays, but the good part about it is that after it's done, the widow is free to marry whomever she likes. Which works out just fine, because most people probably don't have any interest in wedding their in-laws.


You Can't Bury Her Until You Marry Her: Corpse Weddings In Nigeria



Some present day cultural practices in Ebonyi State, southeastern Nigeria, apparently stipulate that marriage must come before burial. And in early 2016, one Mr. Adejo Emmanuel found himself on the receiving end of such a decree. After his fiancé died in childbirth, her family reportedly refused to let her burial ceremonies commence without a wedding.

For financial reasons, however, said condition left Emmanuel in something of a bind. “I have no money to pay for the mortuary,” he was quoted as saying, “but they say it is compulsory for me to come over [and marry her] before she can be buried.”


Domestic Bliss Without The Flesh-And-Blood Hassle: Haitian Voodoo “Spirit Marriages”



According to a 2006 New York Times report, “spiritual marriages are not uncommon among New York's 200,000 Haitian immigrants.” Indeed, spirit marriage (which differs from “ghost marriage” in that it involves being wed to an entity that never lived or had a physical form) is often a choice that works perfectly for both partners... whether they're corporeal or incorporeal. As one Brooklyn resident (who's married to not one, but three, female deities) so memorably put it: "[the] reason why I'm not married to a real woman is because I want to avoid problems. Women of my age don't see my work as a career, and they want a lot of my time." Others see it in more emotional terms and “believe that joining hearts with a voodoo spirit is like signing a contract with an invisible protector to bring good luck, and dispel loneliness.”

Said marriage rituals usually involve the spirit-spouse temporarily channeling itself through the body of a living person. During one such ceremony, the fleshy conduit in question “[wallowed] belly-down... sullying her festive dress with dust from the bare floor.” After the rite was over, her “[phantom] husband slipped back into the air, while his flesh-and-blood new wife remained, rejoicing.”

What can one say? If the spirit moves you, go with it.


Kim Duk-koo, The South Korean Boxer Whose Beloved Married His Corpse



In 1982, famed boxer Kim Duk-koo collapsed into a coma after his opponent beat him within inches of his life. Four days later, he died; but his inconsolable fiancé didn’t let that stop her. "I have decided to make a spiritual marriage with him because I believe that is the only way to console him,” Duk-koo's bride (who, at the time of his death, was pregnant with his child) explained.

The subsequent wedding took place in the boxer's hometown of Kojin, and it was carried out in tandem with the funeral service; the wedding procession “marched up the aisle, solemnly carrying a picture of the boxer draped in black crepe paper, followed by the flag-draped casket.”

Tragic, dedicated, and poetic, one might say.


Charles Manson's Corpse-Coveting Bride To Be



In 2015, a young woman (who actually looked like she could have been a Spawn Ranch habitué) proposed to Charles Manson. However, it wasn't genuine insanity that inspired 26-year-old Elaine Burton to pledge her eternal love; rather, it was commercial interests. According to Gawker, Burton's aim was really “to open a Lenin's Tomb-style attraction in California, with the madman's body on view in a glass case.”

Manson, however, wasn't having it; he'd apparently learned something from studying the hot-young-thing-coming-on-to-the-desiccated-oil-millionaire trope after all those years, and he wasn't about to sign his corpse away so fast. He refused to marry Burton, and, when he was called on it, insisted that the whole set-up had been “a bunch of garbage” and that the fiasco was merely a giant fake carried out for the pleasure of “public consumption.”

Likely story. Everyone knows he probably wept tears of blood in secret, which surely streamed down his face, mascara-like, in swastika-shaped rivulets.