hi. james from engvid. we are gathered heretoday for this thing called "life". that's a line from prince. and i have to apologizebecause one of you out there said that my song was not music from star wars, but frommozart. my apologies. but i'm still using it because it sounds, you know, like somethinghorrible is about to happen, and it is. i'm going to teach you a lesson on weddings. anddepending on who you are, it's a good thing or a bad thing. but anyway, here we go. one ofthe things we're going to talk about -- we'll talk about the rituals of weddings, and i'mgoing to give you some vocabulary to go with that. and just to start off the show -- idon't know who this guy is, but anyway. he's saying, "will you marry me" to this beautifulyoung girl. and she's saying, "yes. i will.
is that a diamond ring" -- another word for"wedding band" -- "or mr. e?" we'll find out. let's talk about weddings. okay? well, beforewe go there, here's a little joke i'd like to put to you. there are two things you willbe invited to. and both of them signal the death of something or the death of life. okay?the first is a funeral. and i did a video on that earlier. go find it. that's wheremy friend corrected me. and the second one is a wedding. it is the death of your singlelife. so what we're going to do is i'll do the magic click, take a step out, and then we'regoing to start the lesson. are you ready? let's go on our journey. "and dearly departed" -- sorry. marriage. ikeep forgetting because that death thing
keeps coming to my mind. anyway. so what wewant to look at is -- i told you i would give you some vocabulary and explain a little bit,give you a little history. it's not too much, but it will help you to remember and understand whywe do what we do. ready? let's go to be board. mr. e is gone, but his presence will not bemissed. okay in fact, i'll put a little e here. we're going to talk about the engagement.okay? there you go, mr. e. he's not looking too happy about being in this particular situation.we say the wedding is a particular day, and it's true. in fact, there are special namesfor weddings when you're getting married. but before that we've -- i consider the weddingstarting with the engagement because that's the first time you make a promise to join --look at that. engagement. you get a ring.
surprise, surprise. you get that engagementring, and you say, "will you marry me?" the person says yes. you put it on. boom. you'refianc�s. you've started the first step to getting married. a little thing about wedding rings. i'm notsure if you know about it, so i'll just take a good look at it. do you know what this symbolizes?well, boys and girls, in the old days, the wedding band -- that's another word for "weddingring", the "wedding band" -- the wedding ring told other men that this woman was taken. sowhen the woman would put it on, other men would go, "oh, no she's off the market." in otherwords, "you can't date her anymore because somebody else has bought the woman." gladthose days are over. yeah? you just bought
a diamond ring, son. it's not over. so engagement.it starts with a ring. and just before the wedding, people -- you know, these are old,kind of rituals or things we used to do. young people would get together. they wouldn't haveanything. they might have lived on a farm. so they needed to get things to start theirnew life together, and not everyone had a lot of money. we're talking of the times wherepeople were kings and queens and princes. so the poor didn't have a lot. so when youwould have a bridal shower or a stag night, well, the bridal shower was to get gifts tohelp the couple start their new life together. i mean, really, this is about 150 years old,but it's still long because you're young, son. not like me. okay. so the bridal shower,if you get invited to that, cha-ching! it's
the beginning of what i call the "weddingmoney machine". you have to show up with a gift for the bride because she's starting anew life and you should pay for it. that's right. unlike the bachelor party -- old guyscall it "stag night" because stags have, you know, the big buck. it's sort of like a horrorstory -- deer. you know bambi's mommy? well, bambi's daddy would be a stag. he would bebig and strong. it would be your final night to be a big, strong man because now, you'reabout the get married. i love it. one ring shall control them all. anyway. so the stag night was a man saying goodbyeto being a man and now to be a husband. and the bridal shower was the time for the womanto the bow, "give me the goods. give me the
good stuff." okay? soshe'd be getting stuff. now, let's talk about the wedding itself.because this happens, and there's a period of time in between. and it's called your "engagementperiod" until we get to the wedding day. now, here's what's funny. here's the funny thing.on the wedding day, it's actually a whole day, but the wedding really consists of afew minutes, okay? now, on the wedding day, you're going to have a wedding party. i knowi made it sound like a funeral, but there is actually a wedding party. it's not whatyou're thinking. the wedding party are, sort of -- today, we call it, like, your "posse"or your "group" or -- what was that program called? the guy had a -- well, whatever. you'vegot your tribe with you. the woman had what's
called the "bridesmaids", and the men had what'scalled the "groomsmen". now, the bridesmaids are made up of her good friends or women thatare important in her life. and the groomsmen are made up for the man of all the importantmen in his life. okay? so this could be his extra brothers. and this could beher sisters and her best friends. now, of the people you like the best -- youwill love this part -- you have your maid of honor. it could be your mother or sister,but really a sister or your best, best friend. and the best man would probably be your favoritebrother or your best friend. these are the people that head these groups, like, the leadersof these particular groups. and then, you have the bride and the groom. the groom -- someof you don't know this word because it only
exists for one day in your life. it's when aman is about to be married. on his wedding day, he is a groom. while the bride is onlya bride on her wedding day. okay? and this only lasts for about a couple of hours becauseyou have to understand after they exchange rings -- that's what this is for. okay? whenthey exchange the rings, they suddenly become "husband and wife". so you have a few hoursin your life that you will be a bride or a groom. "bride" is for girl;"groom" is for boy. okay? so this is the wedding party, not the partyyou're thinking. sorry. but when you're invited to be on the wedding party, it's an honorbecause they're saying you're special. that's why i said it's like your sister or your bestfriend or your brother or your best friend.
you're being givenan honor, okay? a woman has to wear a special dress on herwedding day, and it's called the "wedding gown", sometimes called the "wedding dress"now. why am i mentioning this? guys just get to wear a suit, so it's not a big deal. a suitor a tuxedo. the wedding gown has a specific thing or meaning. and many women search formonths to get the perfect dress. you see, the wedding gown came back -- this is alsoabout 150 years old. because it started after -- because a long time ago, women couldn'tafford to buy one dress to wear for one day and throw in the garbage or put away. this wasjust crazy. but about 150 years ago, they started getting special dresses only for thewedding. and they call it the "wedding gown".
now, the wedding gown was supposed to be inwhite. and it used to come with a veil. a "veil" is something to cover the face. andit was for innocence and purity and secrecy because she was a virgin. and she would beveiled until revealed to her husband. okay? now, in the western world, white meant innocenceand purity. but if you go to the middle east or in asia, it was in red and orange. now,you might think that that woman must have had lots and lots of sex, but that's not why.you see, for asians -- so if you're wondering why in your country -- you're like, "oh, mygod, our women are so dirty." it's not. it's meant for festivity, to be fun and have funand be exciting. so they're saying you're entering a new phase of your life where -- aphase means period -- where you're going to
be having children and family and it's greatand it's fun. so they have orange and red. or the red is to kill your husband in tenyears. no. orange and red. while the white in the west was forinnocence and purity. okay? so she wears this dress; they exchange vows;they get married. now, she says, "i do". he says, "i do". and that's where, you know,your vows and your promises -- we've got it up here. so come over here in a second. after that,you get invited to the reception. cha-ching. more money, people, more money. okay? i talkedabout up here the bridal shower. on the reception, you get a free dinner -- dinner, okay? inthe western world, it's usually chicken and beef with some kind of mash and rice and vegetables.i've been to a few. and then, you must bring
a gift of equal or greater value. isn't thatnice? okay. oh, and before i forget, pops or dads out there, if you're -- you know,girls, bring your father in to watch this video. you should. and explain to him thatin the western world, the father pays for all of this. so if i don't bring a gift, it'sa free meal on him. food for thought. okay? so these are -- well, this is how the weddingday basically proceeds. okay? this is your basic wedding outline. but let's talk aboutsome of the rituals there. i gave you one idea with the wedding gown, why people wearthe colors they wear, right? or why they wear a veil. but let's look at some of the rituals.there are four that are involved in a wedding that i found are important andyou want to pay attention to.
the wedding vows. these are the promises peoplemake to each other about what they will and won't do in marriage. love, honor, and obeybecause i'm a dog. i'm joking, but i mean, this is the basic one in the western world.we say we'll love, honor, and obey you. and usually, by the way, it's for the women. themen don't say that. but the vows, really, especially when they're important, peoplemake their own now, which is really cool. and they say the promises they want to do inthe wedding to make it -- or the marriage to make it happy. right? and joyful for bothpeople. and i think that's kind of cool, don't you? obey me. next, exchanging the rings. i gave you a littlebit when i said it was to show that a man
had bought a woman, right? i didn't finish it,but it's kind of cool. in other countries -- i think it's russia -- they wear it on theright finger. in the western world, especially germany, england, france and whatnot, we wearit on the left. you might wonder why. this is from the romans. you see, they believedthere are a vein -- which is what carries blood -- that came from the heart that wasdirectly linked to your ring finger. so when they put it on, it was to capture the lovefrom your heart in the ring. kind of cool, huh? stick with me. i'll teach you a few things.so now you know why someone wears their wedding band or engagement ring on their left. it'sto capture all that love that goes directly to their heart. okay?
at the end of our weddings, we usually throwrice. everyone throws rice. not so much now because it was killing birds. i'm serious.true story. we were killing birds. we'd be throwing them up. we'd go, "you're married", andthe birds would fall from the sky. "they're celebrating, too. they're dying." but thethrowing of rice or throwing of confetti or paper in the air after a wedding, if you alwayswonder why in our movies they get married, they throw things in the air, it was for fertility.they thought if they threw a lot of stuff in the air, the people walking under it wouldhave many, many babies, and it was a good thing. you like that? yeah. it's cool, huh?i'm about the end it on that. "confetti, yay. i'm getting married." okay?
but before i do, because this is an internationalschool that we have here, i want to bring out one more which i found interesting: thebreaking of the glass. sometimes, you watch north american movies, and you'll see somecouples go [sound of glass breaking], and they break glass. and you think, "all of themdo this." actually, this is a jewish tradition. just as i mentioned that middle eastern peoplehave different colored wedding gowns or they wear veils, in the jewish tradition, theybreak glass. they dance, and they break the glass. and it's to show that this is someserious stuff. "this is serious business. so serious, we're going to break some glassin here." really, they do. i'm not making this up. i wish i could.
i hope this video has brought you and i closetogether and made a great relationship. come, mr. e, up there. see? we're engaged now inconversation and learning, and this is a good thing. anyway. i've got to go. what i wouldlike to say now is the usual. i want you to go to my triple w, www.engvid.com, "eng" asin english, "vid" as in "video", where you can learn about weddings and funerals, andother of life's interesting little acts. have a good one. it'sbeen a pleasure.