GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 23 June) – June, as many would think, is the traditional marrying month. But, is it still
Back in time, many women preferred to be married in June. A June bride was an object of envy of sorts and so, politicians and civic groups organize “mass weddings” during the month after the dry season.
To this, many have asked what the significance is about marrying in June and making a lady a June bride.
Entrepreneur Roxanne Alemania fulfilled a long-time dream when she marched down the aisle on June 7 to formalize her union with long-time boyfriend Marc, marking their nine years of living as a couple.
“It was a mutual decision and it has also been my dream to be a June bride,” she told MindaNews on Saturday. There is a belief among elders that marrying in June brings good luck, she said.
Folk belief has it that June was derived from Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage.
Some believed that when a couple gets married in June, they would be blessed with happiness forever, remarked Ariel Cal, a popular wedding coordinator who runs his own event organizing firm in this city.
Until now, he said, there were still those who think that marrying in June will result in a lasting marriage. Cal quickly pointed out, however, that it still depends on the couple if their union will enjoy a good fortune or not.
“They must nurture a good relationship by setting off with a remarkable and unforgettable wedding ceremony,” he said.
The wedding event must leave an inspiring imprint for the couple to hold on together and push them to nurture their relationship as they build a family, Cal said.
Wedding practices, usually done during the reception and after church rites, continue to evolve to give more meaning to the memorable moment.
With a microphone in one hand, her groom and their child in tow, Alemania belted out the popular upbeat tune “Domino” as she entered the reception hall of her wedding, sending guests moving to the beat.
June is still a popular marriage month in this country, says a report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), but it pointed out that there are more couples now tying the knot during the months of December and February.
Cal said that in their bookings of wedding events, they have more in December, followed by June and September. “This early, we already have more than a dozen bookings for December,” he said.
Cal attributed the December preference to the joyful mode of the Yuletide season which makes weddings more memorable.
As it shows, a June bride is not much of an envy in these modern days and neither is it really a Filipino thing, the 32-year old Cal said.
A December bride, public school teacher Jacy Tuan Miguel, said her marriage to Orlando, her husband of 17 years, was borne out of a necessity because a school would not accept a child-bearing student without the blessing of a marriage.
Miguel said she was about to finish college, but, a Christian school where she enrolled has a strict policy not to accept enrollees who are heavy with a child, unless she and her partner get married.
“We have to rush to get married during the birthday of my sister-in-law,” Miguel said.
A PSA report on marriages released in December last year shows that more couples are now getting married. Records show there are 449,428 listed marriages in 2022, up by 26 percent compared to 2021’s 356,839 marriages.
In the PSA report, Claire Dennis Mapa, national statistician and civil registrar general, said more couples still prefer to be married in civil rites. A huge 43.3 percent of the 2022 marriages were civil weddings, a similar trend in 2021. (Rommel G. Rebollido/MindaNews)
