Source: articles.chicagotribune.com
CHICAGO, USA, October 08, 2010: Interfaith marriages on the rise, giving brides and grooms a head start on compromising.
When Amy Patel, who was raised Catholic, married Mitul Patel, a Hindu, in June, they blended religious traditions from both families. Thanks to a wedding planner, a secular venue and abundant advice from relatives, they pulled it off, she said. “Everyone was so worried about offending everyone else,” said Amy Patel, of Aurora. “But in the end, everyone had fun and learned a lot about another culture.”
The Patels are among the 27 percent of brides and bridegrooms who marry outside their faith, said the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. If you include couples of different Protestant denominations, the number rises to 37 percent. The percentage of interfaith marriages grows annually, said the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.
Hindus, Mormons and Catholics are least likely to marry outside of their faiths, said the Pew Forum. The unaffiliated, Protestants and Buddhists are most likely.
For the Patels, combining traditions meant four days of Hindu rituals, including the women getting henna tattoos, followed by an “American” ceremony, said Amy Patel. The biggest complication, she said, was the clothing. “We wore different outfits for the Indian part and the American part, so we had to get rooms for everyone to change,” she said.