Dads walking daughters down the aisle a no-no in Stockholm

[moondg]

BRIDES in Stockholm who want their fathers to walk them down the aisle are likely to be told it can't be done, as some pastors are refusing to allow the practice they say is sexist, a pastor said today.

"In Sweden we have worked hard in many different ways to eliminate everything that is unequal," a Lutheran Church vicar in the Stockholm region, Yvonne Hallin, told AFP.
She said she would not allow the custom in her parish, and noted that Stockholm's bishop issued a recommendation in 2003 that pastors discourage it.
Couples who marry "are equal when it comes to finances, politics, values ... but when they come to the church ... the woman suddenly turns into a man's property", she said.
Hallin said she has informed a father who was to walk his daughter down the aisle tomorrow that he will not be doing so.
The mother of the bride, who was shocked by the news, told Swedish news agency TT that the ceremony will go ahead as planned but the couple has had to give in to the pastor's wishes.
"In this case it wasn't the couple who became angry but the parents," Hallin said, adding that most people "don't find it strange".
She noted that the custom of fathers walking their daughters down the aisle "is not a Swedish tradition - it has been imported from American and British films".
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22462257-13762,00.html

Does anyone know were the custom of fathers walking their daughters down the aisle came from?

 

[Magnetic Poles]

From http://www.koco.com/wedding/2399764/detail.html which gives origins of many wedding customs. Here is the part about giving the bride away, which I agree, has sexist overtones. However, it should be the bride's choice, and can be couched as not a giving away, but an escorting to the altar, IMO.

Giving Away The Bride
The father who "gives away" his daughter at her wedding ceremony is following an ancient tradition that has evolved over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The custom dates back to the time when a daughter was considered property, and the groom had to pay a price to her family before he could be permitted to marry his intended.

Another theory is that it symbolized the transition of authority from the bride's father to her husband as she moved from the parental home to the conjugal home. Today, many brides follow this custom, but its meaning has emerged as an outward approval of the groom by the parents or family of the bride.

In old times, female children were deemed to be the property of their fathers. When it came time for the daughter to marry and her father approved of the arrangement, he was actually transferring ownership of his daughter to the groom. Today, the act of giving the bride away is symbolic of her parents' blessing of the marriage to the chosen groom.

Women who consider this tradition archaic, or who have lived independently for years before their wedding, can eliminate this custom entirely or revise it to include their mother, brother, stepfather or any other significant member of the family. Some brides even elect to walk down the aisle alone.

 

[2 Timothy2:1-4]

Some people are hyper sensative to just baout anything. Good Greif!

 

[Bro. James Reed]

Yet another reason I don't want to live in Europe.

 

[just-want-peace]

Yet another reason I don't want to live in Europe.

Unfortunately, these slobbering, liberalistic, PC ideas are not too far away from taking root in this country!

MARANATHA

 

[North Carolina Tentmaker]

Why not just leave it up to the Bride?