Work

Ways to Get and End Marriage: Relationships between Marriage and Divorce Rituals during the Coronavirus

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: During the pandemic, Hungary was the only country in the world where the number of marriages not only decreased but also increased. Parallel to this, in the five years prior to the pandemic there were not as many divorces in Hungary as afterwards. Every year since late socialism, there were at least 10,000 fewer new marriages than marriages ending in divorce or death; a trend that was broken in 2019 when the government introduced new loans for married people at a favorable interest rate, representing a quasi-money injection to support people officially getting married (instead of merely cohabiting). Based on my digital anthropological research, I focus on the complex relationship between getting married and the end-of-marriage rituals. I found that the changes in the meanings of marriage influenced not only getting married but also the eventual end-of-marriage rituals. All these factors, as well as the specific reasons for divorce and separation (e.g., the desire to remarry), are related to the way in which end-of-marriage rituals are scripted and interpreted.

Source: Religions

DOI: 10.3390/rel15060753

Author: Judit Flóra Balatonyi

Institution: University of Pecs

Language: English

Topic: Family Dynamics and Relationships

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,046

Funder: National Research, Development and Innovation Office