Black wedding
Black wedding (Yiddish: shvartse khasene), or plague wedding (Yiddish: mageyfe khasene) is a wedding performed in time of crisis, for example, during epidemics. In the wedding, the bride and the groom, who have never met before, were wed in an effort to ward-off diseases.
Overview
The community who wants to perform this wedding selects the bride and groom. The two have never met before and are often orphans or homeless and thus would have no reasonable chance of getting married by themselves.[1]
The wedding takes place at a cemetery and is financed by the community and the community pledges to support the couple.[1] It is hoped that by performing this form of charity the souls of the deceased would reward their efforts and intercede to block the evil decree.[2]
History
There were records of black wedding being performed in Jewish communities around the world. There was one performed Mount of Olives in 1909.[3] Another was performed in 1918 in New York, during the Spanish flu.[4]
The black wedding was most recently performed in Bnei Brak in March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.[3]
References
- Patowary, Kaushik. "Black Weddings: Marrying in The Time of Cholera". Amusing Planet. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
- Ben-David, Lenny. "Married at the First Sight — of a Plague". Times of Israel. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
- Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu (24 March 2020). "Orphan Couple Holds "Black Wedding" in Cemetery to Ward off Plagues". Israel 365 News. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
- Bell, Steve (13 June 2020). "When a Cemetery Wedding Was Used to End the Spanish Flu". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
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