![]() ![]() During the fur trade, inter-racial marriages – usually between male European traders and Aboriginal women – also occurred and were sometimes encouraged by both sides. Marriage between people of different First Nations, and also between men and women from various Inuit groups, was practiced sometimes as a means of establishing political and economic alliances. Marriage ceremonies were usually elaborate community affairs, with gift-giving, smoking of a symbolic pipe, and feasting and dancing taking place after dusk ( see Potlatch ). A bride price would often be paid by the groom to the bride's family before a marriage could take place. Polygamy was practiced in some tribes, with men having more than one wife. Divorce did not carry the stigma attached to it in the Christian traditions brought to North America by European missionaries and settlers. The exception were women taken as prisoners during warfare. Women were often equal in status to men in Aboriginal communities and, like the men, were usually free to choose when and whom to marry, and also to end marriages. Men tended to be older, marrying when they could provide for a family women were younger, marrying when they reached puberty. Generally, however, marriage was a common practice. Marriage rites and customs differed across the continent. There was no single or uniform marriage tradition practiced by First Nations and Inuit people before the arrival of the first European explorers and settlers. These beliefs and ideas were brought to Canada by European settlers and church leaders. Despite these differences, broad agreement on the fundamentals of Christian marriage existed in western Europe after the Reformation. Protestantism imposed fewer restrictions on who a person could marry. Catholicism prohibited a broad range of unions among people, but offered some leeway in the enforcement of its rules. ![]() The Roman Catholic Church held marriage to be a sacrament (a sign of God's presence), while Protestants simply considered it blessed by God.Ĭatholics believed the marriage bond lasted until death, while Protestants accepted the possibility of divorce and remarriage in limited circumstances. However, the various Christian denominations were divided on several issues. Long before the founding of Canada, the Catholic and Protestant churches had established that marriage was a lifelong, exclusive union of one man and one woman who freely consented to join their lives for procreation and mutual comfort. Until recently a man found it more difficult to marry until he could support a wife and children. Third, economic factors have always affected marriage opportunities, especially for men. The selection of potential spouses for women has always been greatest when women were young for men, on the other hand, the choice of mates expanded steadily as they aged. Second, the strong tendency of men to marry women younger than themselves has affected the marriage opportunities of prospective brides and grooms in quite different ways. Also, from 1850 onward women have outnumbered men in the growing industrial cities of central Canada. However, during times of high immigration, and in frontier areas, men outnumbered women. Overall the numbers of unmarried men and women have been more or less equal. In Canada this ratio has varied widely over time. Then, as today, three basic factors influenced the opportunity to marry and the timing of marriage:įirst is the ratio of marriageable males to females. The average age of grooms at first marriage was between 25 and 29 the average age of brides was between 20 and 25. Before the Second World War, nine out of 10 adults in Canada had married at least once in their lives. Since the end of the Second World War, however, the formal rules, family customs and societal expectations around marriage and divorce have steadily been eroded and relaxed.Ĭanadians have always followed the marriage pattern dominant in Western societies – relatively late marriage, companionable unions and a significant proportion of individuals who remain unmarried. Traditional Christian concepts of marriage dominated Canadian society since the founding of the country. James Anglican Cathedral in Toronto, home of the oldest congregation in the city. ![]()
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